LIBRARY UF CONGRESS. 



81iolf. 



.i-^ 



UNITKI) STATi:S OT AIHIOIJHA. 





'i^J^m 



SHEAVES 



A COLLECTION OF POEMS 



3^ 



BY 



HARRIET CONVERSE 







NEW YORK 


V .- ' ... 


G. 


P 


. PUTNAM'S 


SONS 




27 


& 29 WEST 23D STREET 






1S82 








> 





, ..-.:. 24 1832 > 
I ^ No.../.fr..o..fo.l iy 



T'3 /isj 



Copyright by 
HARRIET CONVERSE 

18S2 



Press of ^^ 

G. P. Futnatfi's Sons % 

\ 



Ne^v York 



CONTENTS 



The Year . . . • 

The Days of Dawn . 

The Days of Morn and Noon y 

Nearing the Twilight . | 

Within the Night . . •) 

To a Field Daisy 

Day by Day 

The Sunbeam . . . • 

The Shadow 

Lost Voices . 

Unfolded Hopes 

Regal October 

Luna di mi Alma 
• Driftings 

Lure . . • • 

Weary . . . • 

The Winter Night . 

Waiting . . . • 

To Thyself 

The Quaker Maiden . 

Retrospect . 

Endure . . . • 

Tranquillity 



PAGE 
I 

I 

4 

8 

lO 
12 

17 

19 

21 

23 
26 
28 
32 

33 
36 

38 
39 
41 
46 

47 
49 
56 

5S 



IV 



CONTENTS. 



A Sunset ix March 

Good- Night 

Revealing ^ 

Recognition 

A Regal Day 

Reveries 

Solitude . "] 

Entreatment I 

Suhjection . j 

Devotement j 

My Ruth 

Entreat Not 

The Dead Bird 

The Easter Daisies . 

Of Peace 

After Twilight 

The Heart 

Untaught . 

May 

Thy Heart and Mine 

My Heart and Thine 

Consolation 

Signification . 

Reviewing . 

The Shadow Land 

Vigils 

Nativi'i^y 

Maturity V 

Identity ; 

Eternity J 



59 
C4 
05 
06 

67 
70 

73 
73 
74 

75 
76 
7S 
So 

83 
85 
92 

95 
97 
98 

99 

lOI 

103 
105 
106 
109 
112 
112 
112 
113 
113 



CONTENTS. V 

fAGE 

Memory 115 

Despair Not . . 118 

My Rose .... 120 

A Trusting Heart 122 

Recompense 124 

Tears 126 

My Ingle .... 128 

When ...... 130 

To A Pansy 132 

An Allegory 133 

The Lost Sunbeams 135 

Tangles ... 137 

Life 138 

Death ... 139 

Thou ! . . . 140 

Burying the Blossom 141 

To A Butterfly . " 143 

Waiting in the Shadows 144 

Wooing .... 145 

Not Forgotten . . 147 

Meditations on Deatjj 148 

Unity . 153 

Peace . 154 

Compensations ...... 155 

Confidence 156 

Dreams 157 

Hope ... ... 158 

Submission , . . , . 159 

Substitution . . ..... 160 



THE YEAR. 



THE DAYS OF DAWN. 



LARION wind its fellowship is sounding 
Throughout all space where echoes are re- 
sounding, 
And calls for nature's handmaid to adorn 
A vernal robe of green for spring new-born. 

To whispers in the creeping moss it dies, 
And in the fibres of its bed it lies 
In momentary leisure, while on its breast 
It traces patterns for the mountain's crest ,* 
Then, flighting to the topmost, interweaves 
Its verdant honors through the budding leaves. 

In softer tones, through southern balm it breathes, 
Enticing timid flowers from out their sheaths, 
That with a cautious air — of boisterous wind 

I 



2 SHEA VES. 

And winter still in fear — their folds unbind ; 

Then, distrustful, venture to the sun 

Through beams — their silken beauty still unspun — 

To languish in his bold alluring rays, 

Beguiled through softness of the maiden days 

To wearing hues of glory in his name, 

And basking in the love his glow-gleams claim. 

From slumbers of the winter night, and dreams. 
Awakened by the babbling of the streams, 
The meadows, in obeisance to their song 
And low soft murmurings, the joys prolong, 
Responding welcome through the grace of flowers 
Adorned with rainbow hues of dewy showers. 
That sun looks through when tinting all the bloom 
That decks the valley in a sweet perfume. 

The trees, arrayed in white of bridal dress — 

The coy young blossoms in their bashfulness — 

To fruitage of the year by sun are wed. 

Then o'er the grassy plains a robe they spread 

Of virgin leaves, and decorate a path 

For summer flowers — the spring-time's aftermath. 



THE YEAR. 3 

The birds — congratulating all in love — 

With all their little hearts in anthems prove 

The harmony of nature's unity 

And law, in praiseful peace and purity , 

Then from their matin song, with sober mien. 

To shades of wood they turn, while yet unseen 

By any stray inquiring beam of day 

That might within its coverts lay, 

And build a shelter on the greening bough 

That swaying when the summer breezes blow, 

Will rock the birdlings in the mossy nest. 

The feathering young 'neath the mother's breast, 

That leaves the home and plumes its wings in voice. 

Uniting in the chorus of loud rejoice. 

In praise of might and strength, the love and power 

Of nature's joy, announcing the spring-tide's hour ! 



SHEA VES. 



THE YEAR. 
II. 

THE DAYS OK MORN AND NOON. 



HE spring unveils the curtain of its green 
To (juaff the nectar of the Summer Queen, 
Who comes apace attended by the flowers 
Through tranquil shadows of the morning hours, 
And rosy flushing of the Eastern skies, 
While in her arms sweet-smelling fragrance lies. 

Climbing to the sun on ladders of its beams, 
The flowery kingdom rests in rosy dreams 
Through day, and laves in dew that fills its 

cells 
In perfumes spiced in overflowing wells, 
That cloister in the stillness of the night. 
When flower to flower their sweetness re-unite. 



T/IJ-: YliAK. 5 

The meadows, willi the daisy bloom impearled, 
Unsheathe their [grassy lilades, with ensigns furled ; 
The colors of ihcir ])urnished gold Xa win 
Through concjuest of the harvest glow within. 

The wheat is filling up its milky grain 

That scythes will level to the earth again, 

With all its gleesome, joyous retinue : 

The ragged sailors of the shore, the jolly crew 

That wanders after poppies in the field, 

For dews inebriate from the breath they yield ; 

Intoxicated in their sportive wiles, 

They search for daisies and their modest smiles. 

To find their eyes close shut in grave disdain 

From followers and revels of a train 

That seeks the night, when folded in their love 

All blossoms sleep in dreams of the sun above. 

The shadows deepen far within the glade 
Where wooded beauties lie within the shade, 
And sombrous mellowness, that, fearing sun 
y\nd gleaming butterfiies, his beamings shun ; 
The hidden sweetness that the wild bee finds 



.S7/A . / / /'.S. 

W'ilhin tlu'ir < iips ;is roiiiid his thighs h.c winds, 
I'oi hoiu'V'c'd molds, his liiiL',;d suiiiiiuT g;iii^ 
111 haivi'sl, (If ihc winU'i's wcMiy wane. 
In this si'chision, in niajcslic j)ri(U> 
And i;ran(UMiis ol wild nalwir's lace, al)idc 
riic lori'sl trcts, ihe town-rinL;- niasls tlial loom 
W ithin ihe sea ol sjiaee, whose siiadows (^loom 
rhroiij^hoiil tlu" valley, when tlie sun sinks low 
iK'Nond llu'ir iid_L;c-s, in (lie nij;lit bi'low. 

The streams are mar;j;ined by the lush green grass, 
That dips within tlu' rii)ples as tlu"y |)ass. 
Saluting, hentling in the sununer bree/e, 
W'hoM- rustlings whisper in \\\c forest trees, 
W'hiK' pebbled song in dreamy undertone 
Is lluining lor tlu- sim a plaintive nioai\. 
And bids laii-well to inradowed wold and wood. 
Then onward speeds to oeean and its mighty Hood. 



Twilights lengtlu-n, and the shadows slowly (all ; 
riu- nestling birds in ( ooing love tones eall 
lor mates, that ho\c'r still in airy flight 
Afar from broodlings m '.he dusk of night ; 



7 //A y/:Ah'. 

The sun secrns loth to leave the summer days, 
And floods the valleys with his golden rays, 
And in allegiance — loyal to her grace — 
While Nature sinks to rest, around her face 
He casts a veil of gray and misty shades. 
That Night withdraws, wh';n all her st.arry rnairU 
Are watching Earth in sleep of sweet repose, 
While o'er her bosom the folding flowers clo.-.e. 



SHEA VES. 

THE YEAR. 
III. 

NEARING THE TWILIGHT. 



IIROUGH mellow beams of the sun's declin- 
ing rays 

And ripe abundance of autumnal days, 
The Harvest Matron, in her golden sheaves, 
Her tribute from the fruitage now receives. 

The languid hours escorted by the morn, 

Weary with fragrance of the summer born, 

Recline within carnation clouds of rest. 

And with a listlessness toward the west 

They gaze, through dimness of a veil at Night, 

As if entreating shadows for the summer's flight. 

Nature, adorned in honor of the feast. 

In robes of decorated grandeur dressed, 

Has crowned the fields from treasures of her gold. 

While she her vineyards with purple robes enfold ; 



THE YEAR. 9 

The forests, beautified with glowing hues, 

To summer's shadows bid their fond adieus ; 

The meadows, freighted with the bearded grain, 

Yield their burdens to the harvest train ; 

The birds are flitting to the sunny clime, 

And blossoms of the south wind's summer-time ; 

The streams are hushing voices of their song 

To join the silence of the summer's throng ; 

The roses pale in the glow of autumn's hue ; 

In dust the lilies lay in solemn rue ; 

In lowly sweet submission all the flowers 

Have turned their faces from the sunshine hours ; 

Yet through the stilling vale a voice is sounding 

Throughout all space where echoes are resounding, 

That calls the reapers with thanksgiving to adorn 

The prayers for the Harvest newly born. 



I O SHEA VES. 



THE YEAR. 
IV. 

WITHIN IllK NUJHT. 

!y"«™]rril leaden lines the skies are overcast ; 
iMBj Convoying Winter with a trum])et blast, 
The winds are dolefnl in their moans of woe 
And swooning sighs, while chill the tempests blow. 

The sun abandons Morn with but a glance, 
While Night, more friendly as the shades advance, 
I'olds round the shivering hours a robe of gray. 
Pressing to her bosom the wintry day. 

In woe the trees stretch forth their nakeci arms, 
Divested of their fair autumnal charms, 
.\nd trembling, by the angry winds are swayed 
To and fro in the moody, wintry shade. 
The streams that babbled in their tuneful songs 



/■//A yJ:Ah-. 1 I 

Of vernal joys that siirnrncr sun prolongs, 
Are silenced in the Imsh of Winter's deatii, 
Through mandate of its voice and icy l;rcatli. 

In shrouded silentness all nature lies ! 
Where Summer bloomed beneath the azure skies, 
The tempests sweep the deserts of the snow 
'rii.a drift seimlchral o'er dead flowers below, 
While Winter casts o'er Year a mournful veil, 
'i'lirough moan and sob and sullen wierdly wail. 



SHEA I '/iW. 



' 'I'o A I'II':li> daisy. 

IIOU l)ii<;ht " c'f ol clait- " that is opiMiipi; to 
llu" sun, 

W'itlim thv ;;()l(lcMi disk \\\c ilay liatli iiist l)c>^iin . 
riioii tlir littU- wandtMi'i ot a lowly birth. 
So hiimhU l)cMuliiii; with the wind to niotluT cMilh, 
As it in «;iat('lnl luMu-diit ion ot ( lod's praise, 
I'-xti-ndini; to her hosoni all tin llorcts' rays, 
lu'Si-rchinL; nurturi" tiom the dew within hi-r 

breast — 
in trndrrncss o\ all thv h>vo and solf-bctlllt'St — 
I'oi dnst, wluMi'in lh\ nndfr>;rowinu; t(Mi(h-ils lay. 
W'lnlr thv wi-ani-il blossoms toUow tlu> sun by dav 

A U\i;rnd ot the Mytholoi;ic lore 

RiM ites thr translonnalion to thy starry (lower 

l'"roin a drvad's beauty by \ irtunnnis deity 

I )| buds and blossoms who tron\ a woiul nymph 

ri'seuiHl thet 

Imprisoni-d in her heart —and savi'd thy i;olden eye 



i() A j<//:LJ) jjA/:;y. 13 

]'or glancing in l.ovc's licart for Lovfj's reply, 
When some lorn rnairlcn sighs for I, five's revealing 
Of some sweet mystery />f Love's concealing, 
While thy [nearly leaves are tolling the silent knell — 
As one by one to earth they fall through numbered 

spell 
Of incantation- " He lovers rne ; he loves me not." 
'io be with him his Heart or be by him forgot ; 
Should Fate decree the answering " No," through 

sighing breath 
On sod below, thy lidiess eye will rnourn in death 
'I'he wounds of Sorrow, that plucked thee from the 

day 
'i o threnodize a measure in Love's pathetic lay, 

'I'o Royalty and Throne thy sweet and modest face, 
In peace o'er heart of doubtful rest, hath lent a 

grace, 
While courtiers multiplied thy beauty in device 
On sheening arms — by bannered virtues to entice 
The sunshine of the Queenly srnile from royal 

throne. 



14 SIIEAJ'ES. 

She of Anjoii — Margaret — the unhappy one : 
Unostentatious thou, transported from the fields 
To exile, in i)omp and blazonry of shields 
To glitter in the sun immortalized through pain 
Of never giving baek to sun his glance again ! 

Entwined with laurel leaves in thy simplicity. 
In homage to a genius — true nobility, — 
Thine eye was molded by the skill of artisan 
From virgin gold, thy florets from the moonlight's 

wan 
Of silver mine, and coined in a glorious crown 
With peace in restfulness was ever looking dov/n 
Through lucid drops, the consolidated dews 
And thousand lustres of the diamond's gorgeous 

hues ; 
From Marguerite to Marguerite, the pearl of France, 
This tribute from the Scot thy beauty did enhance ; 
The leaves that nature wreathes thus harmonized a 

name, 
With pearls of sea and land for "Pearl of pearls" 

in fame, 



TO A FIELD DAISY. 15 

Undergrowlh of Nature's heart, and bloom that 

robes the sod, 
Transfigured through a mortal skill to speak of 

God, 
And symbolize in beauty, j^oesy, and song, 
Thy captive life, dear Daisy ! that Love and Fame 

prolong. 

When on the wayside in thy humble purity 
Thy faithful eye is ever paying sovereignty 
To sun — though to thy root the thorns and briers 

cling 
Through stones that choke thy breath — a gladness 

dost thou bring. 
Dear Daisy, to my heart — on mountain, in the 

shade. 
Or on the cool refreshing sod within the glade. 
With thistles and with thorns that grow beside the 

road ; 
Where'er thou art, thou speakest to my soul of 

God. 
Thy bending to the winds, thy looking at the sky 



1 6 SHEA VES. 

With cheerfulness through storms in thy adversity, 

Thy closed lids at night, thy brightened eye at morn. 

At sun's 'light glancing day by day with love new- 
born, 

Bespeak the glow that cometh through a sorrow's 
night, 

The benediction of God's justice and His might. 



I^AV BY DAY, 17 



m 



DAY BY DAY. 

AY by day the sunshine comes and goes. 
The moaning sea tide ebbs and flows, 



Yet Time the unmeasured, measuring all, 
From slow advance the swift retreat will call. 

Day by day Time gives to Pleasure wings ; 
To Pain, what leaden feet he brings ! 
He cradles Hope — yet gives not sweet repose 
To Fame, till Death a monument bestows ! 

Day by day Time, counsel of the wise, 
Sees Folly with its bells devise 
The chime that rings aloud Ambition's name 
In peals of joy, to echo knells of shame ! 

Day by day Time lends to Friendship hands 
That write for Sorrow, on the sands 
Where tides will come and go, the name of Love 
That seas will drown and leave no sign to prove .' 



1 8 SHEAVES, 

Day by day Time rolls the scroll of Life, 

Yet man heeds not in worldly strife 

The vanished years, till Death demands his claim — 

The mound-lines of the clay that mark his name. 



THE SUNBEAM. I9 



THE SUNBEAM. 

N the pulse of the wind, on the winged clouJs 
it lies, 
Voyaging the day through the arch of its skies. 

From the dews of the night it calls the young 

flowers 
To greet the gray dawn and its morning hours. 

In a cradle it rocks in the foam of the sea. 
And tosses in spray in frolicsome glee. 

In the surge of the waves, on their uppermost crest^ 
It caresses the winds in their moaning unrest. 

Within the red heart and the blush of the rose 
It gleams in the perfume of a day-dream's repose. 

With gold of its glowing in the dimples of fields 
It jewels the grain that the full harvest yields. 



20 s//J':a]'j:s. 

It ghuUlcns the bridal, it briglUcns the tonih. 
Witli llowers of its j^romise, tliroiigh beams in its 
t;looni. 

With the ardor of noon, all over the earth, 
It nourishes the life t)f creation's new birth. 

Piirsuinij; the shadows of the gray sombre night, 

It rifts throiigli its darkness in the flood of its light. 

All through the days of Time's endless flow, 

iMoni tlie dusk of its ebbing its golden beams glow. 



THE SHADOW. 21 



THE SHADOW. 

MPOSING a silence on the waves of the sea, 
It stains the gray darkness that tempests 
decree. 

It summons the stars with their majestic night 
To call forth their Queen in shimmering light. 

From the feverish glow of the summer's sun skies, 
In the still, windless forest in twilight it lies. 

It purples a hood for the violet's face. 

And feathers the ferns with frondy-leaved grace. 

In the peace of the lily it worships the rose, 
Refreshing their sweetness in languid repose. 

It braids in the waters a willowy grace, 

When the quivering leaves are caressing its face. 

It flees from the sunshine to hide in the pines, 

\n their siientness guarding their evergreen shrines. 



?2 S/IKAJ'KS. 

It touches the lids of the siin-L^azing llowors, 
While Ihey weep in their dews for the day's golden 
hours. 

It folds o'er the valley and Inuls a din\ veil. 
When the i;ray tardy skies in tlie twiliglit are ]iale. 

In creation and iieaeefulness all over the earth 
ll nurtures in niysteiy the sunlii;hl of birlh. 

All throu^j,h the nii;hl where Time entlless tlows. 
Though a sigh oi a sunbeam, a ])eace it bestow?;. 



LOST VOICES, 23 



LOST VOICES. 

ir, yc lost voices lliat never come l)ack again, 
Where do ye wander in tender and weary 
pain ? 
Voices of gladness that welcomed the morning sun 
When Life was a temple that Time had just begun, 
Tiie sliout of a freedom tliat knew nol a care 
When joys of the heart were resounding everywhere' 

Voices of chiIdhoo<l tliat i)ralth:(l untaught by fears, 
That stifle the heart in the sorrow of tears. 
Where are ye now ? In the echoes of mournful tone 
Tolling with dreary care life and its solemn moan ; 
Or lingering in chords that were lost in a song, 
Strugghng in vain the sweetness of life to [)rolong ! 

Tiie lost tones of voices that welcomed us (hiy by 

day, 
Till the truants from heart we left them on the way 
I'orgotten and lost forever in worldly strife, 



24 SHEA VES. 

Sad, sad and pitiful, gone from our future life ! 
How silent and cold the empty and vacant heart, 
Where voices were lost, that wander in pain apart ! 

And ye of the greetings gentle and changeless in 

love. 
In brightness of sunshine free as the sky above. 
In stillness of twilight whispering soft and low. 
Pathetic and tender, in sighs that true lovers know ; 
Dearer and still dearer grown in love's winsome spell, 
Compassionate, watchful, and true, when shadows 

fell ! 

Where are thy sunshines ? Lost in the How of Time's 

tide ; 
Thy twilights are hushed. Love is no longer the 

guide ! 
Though the heart calls aloud, its pathos is lost in a 

sigh, 
For we stretch forth our hands when the shadows 

are nigh, 
Reaching for love-tones in the whispering past. 
Where our hearts resurrect but the phantoms at last ! 



LOST VOICES. 25 

All, yc lost voices, will yt- never again come back ? 

Will ye wander forever lost in a weary track ? 

In the peace that will be in the higher world of 

love. 
Will ye linger in souls blessed in the realms above ? 
In a glory arrayed, will ye welcome us there. 
Where shadows are lost that follow us everywhere ? 



26 SHEA VES. 



UNFOLDED HOPES. 



|ANY a bud enfolds a hue that never sees the 

sun ; 



Unfriendly thoughts have blasted hopes that love 

has just begun ; 
Many a moss-bed is a couch where rip'ning acorns 

fall, 
That grown to oaks, o'erspread a shade where 

blights have cast a pall. 

Many a stream has babbled love to neighboring 
flowers in dell, 

That running seaward lost itself in moan and surg- 
ing swell ; 

Many a tree disdains to bend that falls before the 
storm. 

While flexile reeds submissively to frigid blasts con- 
form. 



UNFOLDLD J J OPES. 2/ 

Many a life with pride is launched that bears a 

golden name, 
And drifts through waste of watery woe a wreck of 

bitter shame ; 
While adverse winds have tempests blown o'er craft 

of humbler sail, 
That, tossed through spray of lashing waves, outrode 

the angry gale. 

Many a growth of flaunting ease betrays a sterile 
soil, 

While generous impulse shackled dies in ruin of de- 
spoil ; 

Many a heart its glory wins e'en through a chast'n- 
ing rod, 

And yields its sorrows, tears, and sighs to will of 
gracious God. 



.syyy-;. / / 'es. 



REGAL OCTOBER. 

C r()P)l<'. R days arc regal days, for trees are 
51 robed in hues 

Of gknving splendor gorgeous, sucli as sovereign 
death imbues. 

A canopy of tinted boughs liangs o'er the wood- 
kind bed, 

iMubroidered with a dash of goUl mingled with 
naming red. 

The mai")le leaves are falling fast, veined with the 

llush of death, 
To wreathe o'er earth a cha])let touchetl by winter's 

frosty breath. 
The oak trees, monarchs of the wood, are turning 

russet brown. 
And yielding tributes, one by one, to twine with 

autumn's crown. 



REGAL OCrOBKR. 29 

The fields are sere, the gcarners filled, the reaj)ers' 
harvest hymns 

Are echoed through the dell where nests hang emp- 
ty on the limbs ; 

The streams are haunted witii a sigh of mufricrl 
summer songs, 

Where willov/s drop their yellow tithes that ride the 
waves in throngs. 

The hawthorn hedges, hanging low, with shadows 
gloom the path 

Through meadows where no daisies grow in sum- 
mer's aftermath ; 

And feathery down of tliistles floats where clovers 
bend in glee, 

When swayed by winds their perfumes rose to tempt 
the honey-bee. 

A melancholy stillness breathes through hush of 

autumn's day, 
And brooding o'er our saddened hearts may find 

some hope astray ; 



30 SHEA VES. 

A hope that babbled with the stream its love-song 

to the dell, 
Ere spring and summer 'trothed the vows that 

blossomed wild flowers tell. 

Yet with the sighing sorrows some slight compensa- 
tions come : 

Though fields are bare the reapers glean grain for 
the harvest-home, 

The sun that burned the grasses brown ripened the 
fruits of spring, 

And wild-wood birds have loved the nests where 
shredded vines still cling. 

The streams, where float the fallen leaves that eddy 

round in drifts, 
Have sunbeams rippling o'er their tides that break 

in golden rifts. 
The flowers that droop in red decay have danced in 

summer's breeze. 
And stars of heaven with lustre shine on naked 

forest-trees. 



REGAL OCTOBER. 3 1 

October days with mellow glow still yield to earth a 
crown, 

Resurgent through the dead dry leaves and blos- 
soms fallen down ; 

But gentle spring again will come, and winds witli 
southern balm 

Will softly sway the budding trees so mournful now 
and calm. 



3- SHEA VES. 



LUNA DI MI ALMA! 



WINING round me with thy soft arms, 

A summer to my heart, 
Through budding of its sweet charms 
That blossom where thou art, 
Luna di mi alma, how is heart to know 
When the day of winter comes — only by its snow ? 



II. 



Murmuring in my ears thy fond tones 

Through harmonious chime, 
Thy voice seems tolling sad moans. 
Is it winter time ? 
Linia di tni alma, in the winter hours 
Will my heart its summer know — always, by the 
flowers ? 



DRIFT! NGS. 33 

DRIFTINGS. 

OME lives are numbered years that flow tc 



sea, 

Where — changing with the tides — the yesterdays 
Are merging with to-days in waves that crave 
A shore where promises are writ in sand 
That memory chiims, and will defend, though lost 
In chaos of eternal dividend ; 
A sieve where Time, with rigid cruelty, 
Drains dregs that drift, impelled by force of fate. 
Within the current of an endless wave. 
Through incompleteness, to eternity ! 

A trust grown precious, rich in love and joy, 
Through faithless stewardship impoverished 
To abject, beggared desolation ; 
The heart that lost the birthright of its love 
Tlwough sacrifice of regal confidence, 
And lavished riches of its generous hope, 
Returned through woe, a prodigal to life, 
To mourn its wan existence till its death ! 



34 s//F..t 1 7;.v. 

'I'hc sc-lf-S()\vn llowiMs thai Mossomcd in tlu- sun, 
In hhisliiiiL; (>r \\\c licnirs' ii'd-K-tti'iiiii; Idvo, 
Lying in their ladoil shrouds in (KmiIi 
That sliortiMis incniory's tablet to a tln-ani • 
W'hcio, risini; in its ( haos, sick' 1)V side 
111 resum-ctions ot inrirmit\., 

Through broken moonbeams, sliivering in the space'. 
They garhind s])eetres of the lieart witli i rowns, 
riie vain dehisions ol a haunlt-d lite I 

The altar iiims ot a eoxi'uant ; 

Negieeti-il and overgrown with wei-ds, raid;, 

I''lo\V(.M li'ss, odoiless, wet with dews that dii]> 

r'rom staring cypress trees. Watchers ot tlu> night 

That closes 'round this shrineless pilgrimage, 

\ e knew no saint or priestlv i\\c that wvd 

The hush ol peace in unity t(^ lite ; 

Nor perfumes of the censers swing o'er \'ows 

In everlasting fragrances of truth ! 

The tuneless judse that throbbiul through ira^on's 

sway. 
In stern propriety, io cheat the heart 



JjRJJ'JINiJS. 33 

By undulating narrowness of time ; 
Stilling, in the rust of songlcss, stern (lcr:ay, 
Echoes tliat. f.liokcd lhron;jh stifling in their l^irtii 

The hopes grown listless witli the tire (jf age, 
That lie in shadows of toil and care ; 
'J'he f>aling phantoms of heroie love, 
'I'hat sought with longings of an eager soul 
']"<j clasp another life in climbing strength, 
And rear to heavenward an immortal grrnvlh 
I'or fulness of eternity ;ind life-. 
Tlie vine of rest that shelters with its green, 
A stone — that quarries lend to every name — 
(Carved in granite furrows for the- sign 
'I'hat marks the tidings of dej>arted clay. 
Gone down within the refuge of the tomb, 
i^or resurrection of a perfect day ? 



36 SHEA VES. 

LURE. 

I. 
N my neighbor's garden a bright red rose was 
growing, 



Fair to see ! 

Her blossoms ripe to bursting, with fragrance over- 
flowing, 

Not for me ! 

From out my chamber window I watched her nod- 
ding grace, 

Far away ! 

Giving back the sun his kisses through her blushing 

face, 

All the day ! 

III. 

The burning sun, at noontide, with love crept in her 

heart, 

Bud of morn ! 

For she. alas ! with panting breath, had torn her 

leaves apart. 

With her thorn ! 



LURE. 37 

IV. 
When night had come, sweet rose was drooping, gone 

her bloom. 

Sad her sigh I 

Sun had fled — forgotten rose, alone in direful 

gloom. 

Left to die ! . 



38 SHEAVES. 



WEARY. 



]EARY of wishing, yet never to win : 

\'cMitli drifting backward, old ago nisli- 



ing in ; 
Toll nio, () Time's tide, from wlionco (omo tho 

years 
'I'hat surge through my life witli sorrow and tears. 

\Veary of seeking, yet never to find : 
While o'er my brown locks the silver threads wind ; 
Tell me thy mystery, invisible hand, 
That, touching my brow, such furrows conuuand. 

Weary of ])lodding, yet ucver to gain : 
Treading the sands, trackless, endless, and vain ; 
l")esert of age, wliere my limbs, waxing cold. 
Drag but a burthen, for life 's growing old. 

Weary, so weary, yet comes not the night : 

I 'm tired with the travel and bruised in the fight ; 

Tv)ttering and feeble, oh, lighten my woes. 

And grant my soul. Lord, a blessed repose. 



/■//A IV /N 77'. A' AV67/7'. 39 



V\\V\ W'W'VVM NIOHT 



I^'I\'\ I N l'>I) in l.'iircr clirrK.'S, the unwilling sun, 
'Neath low'ring winter rlouds, seems da- 
U) shun ; 
Ohli(|ue his gaze .'it nifjin, with hinguid gh:anis, 
He hastens t'ward thcj west with slanting be.'irns. 

Near edge oi southern sky he linger, still, 
As if to rn(;ek the hours of wintry ehill ; 
Wiiile sober dusk sedately comes aj;aee, 
To veil with sombre shade all nature's face. 

f look upon the night, and shadows lise, 
With se-mblances of dreams tliat shroud my eyes ; 
The requiem, bf;rne by winds, weird moans irn}).'irt 
Like voire of wandering soul with ghrjstly heart. 

The trees with outstretched arms — sj^ectres trans- 
formed — 
Invite the- sullen winds, and bend deformed; 
Tlie pines, whose bristling spears defy the blasts, 
Rise — giant s'niinels — o'er forest fasts. 



40 SHEA VES. 

Where hedges outline meads, a vestal throng, 
In garb of snowy white, seems ling'ring long. 
As if to watch the dead — the summer's flowers. 
Whose blossoms dialled time and marked the hours. 

From out the gloomy wood, through shadows come 
A mournful train of captives, stricken dumb ; 
A multitude that beckons spring to call 
Aloud, and bid their fetters loosened fall. 

The flowers, the babbling stream, the daisied sod, 
The tasselled corn, the fields where poppies nod, 
With summer days and waving seas of bloom. 
Embrace, then vanish in the cryptic gloom. 

O night ! with frowning clouds close my sad eyes, 
While yonder dreamy pageants shrouded rise ; 
Thy icy sceptre bears a frosted breath. 
And changes summer's life to winter's death ! 



WAITING. 41 



WAITING. 



m 



ENEATH the snowy veil of winter's sombre 
grace, 

Unresurrected beauties lie in sleepful peace ; 
The sun evokes from shadows, in the genial rite 
Of consecrated wedlock, the day from winter's night : 
Spirtualized in beauty, in the strangeness of the 

hours, 
Nature casts aside her winter hood to gaze on 

flowers. 
Wondrous in rotation, that come in bright array, 
In fields of frosted browning, where snowy patches 

lay. 

As if waiting in the subtle change for signs, 

She spans the horizon, and looks within her shrines. 

Her trees are looking upward as if they loved the 

- sky, 
And wait in solemn silence her word, to beautify 
In adornment, with a verdure, all their sober gray, 
To harmonize their green abreast of golden day. 



42 SHE A VES, 

The deep blue azure of lier sky seems fading down 
In paling exi)e(:tation — as if of winter's frown 
In fear, — while opal hues prepare the drifting clouds 
For summer's glory, in its still unlifted shrouds, 
Tiirough suggestive balmy winds, in their sighing 

breath 
Luxuriant in the sober realm of winter's death. 

With faithful scrutiny she gazes on her crowns — 
i'he august lofty mountains that winter yet im- 

browns, — 
Then with a thoughtful care, she bids their cata- 
racts llow 
In sijarkling jewels to the waiting streams belov/ 
In the slumbering valleys of her emerald green, 
To wreathe around her flowery meads their silver 

sheen. 
With gentle, dexterous hand she touches all the 

hills, 
And lo ! a sudden substance the quiet shadow fills; 
A mantle falls in graceful folds on all the land, 
The jewelled robe of Nature's fair and dainty hand ! 



WAITIXG. 43 

With gladsome air and smiling, sweet, uncovered 

face, 
She walks abroad, her pathway filled with fragrant 

grace ; 
The listening buds will blossom when her footsteps 

near, 
While the sunbeams, summoned from the shadows, 

all appear 
In answer to her call, dispensing through their 

beams 
Her reflected blushes, where'er the flower land 

dreams. 
Uprising in her stateliness and matronhood, 
She leaves for summer's sun the valley fields and 

wood ; 
Then onward to the sea — restless \n solemn moans, 
The voices of its majesty and undertones — 
She treads with dainty steps close to its sandy 

-^shore. 
Where sullen waves surging say : '* Evermore 
For thee the day and night, for us are all the 
tides " ; 



44 SHEA VES. 

And the sea calms down where the land its main 

divides, 
Hushing its weary tones on the spring-time's broad 

highway, 
The answering cadence of Nature's own sweet lay ; 
While the ships sail on in their commerce to and 

fro, 
Through still and quiet tides — the winter's hushed 

reflow ; 
Then reclining in her bowers through her perfumed 

days, 
Reviewing all with ceaseless care — her broad 

arrays, — 
Sweet Nature rests, commanding through her toiler, 

Spring, 
The sowing of the broadcast seeds that harvests 

bring. 

Hour by hour generous Nature the day recalls 
That comes and goes, while the sea tide rises and 

falls. 
Though we mouni for all the past yet the sun goes on 



WAITING. 45 

Silently claiming his own, unmindful of none : 

See then where the shadows lay what the sunbeam 

finds 
In the green and jewelled fillets that Nature binds 
Around her sombre crowns, that Winter veils with 

snow, 
All purified from dimness in the summer's after- 
glow ! 

Thus Nature waits in gentle, true, submissive will. 
In her deep, profoundest slumbers, Nature still, 
Triumphant reigning, never ending in all tii^rie, 
Enduring ever, abiding always, and sublime, 
Still creating, still renewing, in majestic power 
Forever new, forever old, forever more 
Obedient, thine, Oh, Nature ! all in one 
The universal law from God's creating throne. 



4^ SHEA VES. 

TO THYSELF. 

IggT^lN tiie army of the multitude 

EPJ Take thou thy pla.ce ; 

Among the host bear thou for ensign 

The holy mace ; 
Faint not, dear heart, unto thyself alone 

Will come the grace ! 

In the battle of the faithful ones 

Is sorrow told, 

Through threnodies where God's own mercy 

Is manifold. 

Faint not, dear heart, unto thyself alone 

Will mete be doled ! 

From tlie darkness of the valley's sliade 

Tl^.ou hast a])pealed. 

While yet beyond the mountain's highness 

Light is concealed. 

Faint not, for day unto thyself alone 

Will be revealed \ 



THE QUAKER MAIDEN. 47 



THE QUAKER MAIDEN. 



w 



ER dreamy penitential face 
Is shadowed by a human grace 
Her solemn, lustrous, spiritual eyes 
Reflect the shades of earthly skies. 

In sober folds her golden hair 
Has prisoned sunbeams in a lair ; 
With aspirations in her dreams 
Young Love is' singing gentle themes. 

Within the kerchief o'er her breast 
A lily lies in swooning rest ; 
A rose-bud languished there at morn 
In fevered blushes sad and lorn. 

No clamoring sighs disturb her peace ; 
Inaudible in calm they cease ; 
Restrained within a proper sphere 
They wait in silence and in fear, 



48 SHEA VES. 

While yet the sun is following day, 
Lest one lone wanderer go astray, 
And, lost within a reckless thought, 
Betray the secret Love has brought ! 



RETROSPECT. 49 



RETROSPECT. 



Retrospect ! thou solemn limner of the past, 
Dash thou thy sombre shades with rosier tint ; 
Where gloom thy clouds o'ercasting beams of sun, 
With royal purple lavish generous hues, 
To signify the golden glow beyond ; 
With gentle hand outline the years of Time, 
For bolts of Fate will rive the gaps of woe 
In every life, and time-grown mantling green, 
Will hide the chasm where a buried grief, 
And idols, shattered by a vandal hand, 
Were thrust — lest with a voice of lamentation loud 
We cry bereaved at tear-begotten wounds ; 
For though the dead hear not, the living heart 
Has echoes where their voices resurrect 
In sepulchres of Memory's silent tomb. 
Trace thou the blooming vines of passion-flowers— 
The tender symbols of a sacrifice — 
Where'er the hungry dust of grief may lie, 
To feed the thirsty sorrow with their dews ! 



50 SHEA VES. 

Lo I with thy leaden grays — the sullen frowns 
That margin thy array of tears and storms — 
Frugal be thou ! Shadow thou not the flowers 
That held ill golden cups ambrosial dew, 
Where butterflies — my vanities — have supped 
Intoxicating numbers for their dreams ; 
Such foster growth in naught save gracious light. 
Thy limnings deepen not to dark'ning clouds, 
For chilly breath would shiver all their glow. 
And moths, poor moths, would flutter to their death. 
Leave halo of the sun, for Pity's sake, 
Where I can lay them down in beams to rest ! 

Thou lookest through my eyes, when sad tears flow, 

O Retrospect ! for horoscopic view ; 

So faintly numberest thou the stars above, 

That dimness of a mist has intervened, 

Obscuring gleams of Hope's celestial rays. 

Leaving no fixed light for hearts revolve ; 

The bleak and desolated main below^. 

Seems naught to me but dreariness and strife, 

And meditations of a woful cirief ; 



RETROSPECT. 51 

Mirage that doubles through my weeping eyes 
The festal garb of joy to shroud of death ; 
Where bells have chimed in joy now dirgeful tones 
Seem numbering one by. one my years of life. 

Not so I pray thee count my days — through tears ; 

But with thy inner vision improvise, 

For nonce, a garden where a promise glows. 

Were heart of mine suggesting lines for thee, 

'T would ask for flowery beds where roses grow 

Of fervid red, not buds with mossy hoods 

O'er faces hanging low, confessing love ; 

But royal, courtly queens, that govern hearts, 

Bestowing love as guerdon with a thorn \ 

That wounds, if avarice of conquest grasps j 

Too quickly — in the eager greed of life — 

With fickle power, a Clytie slave to win 

For madly following day by day the sun. 

And 'round the sovereign bloom (quite near the rose) 

The modest sisterhood — the little nuns 

Who veil their sweets in shade — the violets, 

Amid the gorgeous blushes of the court, 



5 2 SHEA VES. 

Would grace perfume with blue-eyed beauty's i/eacc, 
The wild-wood loveliness of nature's heart, 
That lends, in truthfulness, to quiet lives, 
I'he rest tliat even blossoms crave in shade ! 

Within the sanctuary of the flowers — 

Where queenly roses ever rear the shrine — 

Set sweet carnation pinks, whose spicy breath 

Will offer incense to forget-me-nots, 

Through kisses, fanned by winds o'er beds of moss. 

The altar where their virgin love will rest 

When locked in death, they blend in perfect glow 

The amaranthine hue of purpled life. 

As gentle summer showers renew the hues 
And give new life to blossoms trodden down, 
While sighing breezes whisper hope agam, 
Through all the weakness of a siiih concealed, 
My pride would ask of thee, O Retrospect ! 
For poppies, scarlet-hued — a garden row ; 
In fields and meads, with rustic joy, they strive. 
Outgrowing grain, to reach the noonday sun ; 
Before the winds that blow the chnlY and tares. 



RETROSPECT. 53 

With wheat they bend, and claim the reaper's blade, 
Caressing scythes in death, unfaded still ; 
In garden beds, with prideful scorn they nod 
To all the flowers alike, nor choose to win 
A love with perfumed breath, or coaxing sighs ; 
With burning faces to the sun they dream 
Through day of rivalling beams, and when the night 
Has come, submissive bend, and, shrouding ])omp 
With flaming robes wrapped round with self-content. 
Inhale with sighs their own narcotic sleep ! 

With peaceful self-content all flowers grow ; 

The uninvited weeds will force their way 

Within the garden court and win a place 

In some forgotten shaded row, that love 

The sunshine just as well as if their stems 

Were diademed with bloom, and though their leaves 

In gratitude receive the heavenly showers, 

Some watchful gardener's hand will pluck their 

root 
And cast them to decay — blindly seeing not 
God's hand in weeds that dare to grow unasked I 



54 siJKAr/'.s. 

And so, too, Retrospect, our little faults — 

()ur sweet enticing sins — will find ;i way 

And rt';i(h our lic.itts, wlicic purer blosson'i;^ j;ro\. 

Uncalled lor and nnsoiiglit, and <;ive to life 

A shaded undergrowth, where ofliiiies live 

The llowerless weeds that Nature, in her true 

r.eiievolen<-e, has cast to generous Life, 

Who claims as well the broadcast seeds tliat gruw 

in untitled soil, as all the bloom of (lowers. 

To cultivate, to |)rune, to strengthen all 

Is Ciod's own task, iiol that of wt-akly man, 

Who seeks in virtues for the laults of lif(,'; 

In some' to find, ])erchance, the sell -grown weeds, 

Intruding with the self-same right as bloom. 

Will thou, () Ketrospect ! with self-sown grace, 

In sweet forgetfulness of all save ilowers, 

I'oitray the ])ast ? Heed not the idle thoughts 

Tliat lind ill all the thistles wayside thorns, 

\)i\\ search loi honeyed stores within the briars ; 

And in thy Innuuigs overshadow all 

W iih misty veils ol ilusk and heaxi'idy dews ; 



RKTJ^OSrKCT. 55 

On all the weeds, I I'r.iy tlicc, lay thy hand 
In tender, gentle love : if in the shade 
'riu;y will not seek a rival in the sum ; 
If in the sun tliey will not ask for hlorjui, 
Contented they with dews ;i.iid pe.'ire :i,ud life ! 

I'or voi(:(.-s (;f thy song take thfju the sighs 

Of s<juthern winds, whose tuneful, rhythinal calm 

I^^xtracts from all the hhKjm of life sweet scents 

And everlasting joy — a iliapsodi/.e 

i'"roni Nature's niclfMly, not undertones 

That murmur in a solemn dirge a life 

Of servile warnings in the sighs of J)eath, 

But sing aloud the roundelay of hearts, 

The rustif;, untaught theme that tunes the s(jul 

Wherever chords, in love, shall harm(jni/,e 

A mortal life with immortality ! 



56 SHEA VES. 



ENDURE. 



URMUR not, O soul of mine, 
Endure . 
Transgressions cover thee, 
Let thy petition be, 
Not mine the will but Thine. 

Endure. 

Bid not rod of vengeance stay. 

Endure . 
No moan, nor plaint, nor wail, 
With sighs for sins avail, 
Thine is the judgment-day. 

Endure 

Soul, with patience, wait thy call, 

Endure \ 

Immortal, yet of earth. 

Eternity claims birth 

Though transitory pall. 

Endure. 



ENDURE. 57 

Soul, till night of blessed peace, 

Endure ! 
And thy appointed rest, 
When death will thee invest 
With life, and thy release. 

Endure. 



58 SHEAVES. 

TRANQUILLITY. 

HE sun sinks low throiigli clouds of purpled 



gold 

'I'IkiI skirt tlic western sky witli regal fold. 
The winter darkness deei)ens from afar, 
And nearer, clearer, glints the evening star ; 
Come, watch the shadows fall 
Dim, soft, and slow ! 

The dusk is here, and Peace patrols the night, 
l^'.scorting calm Repose from day aflighl ; 
A (juiet hush subdues my soul — with thee 
I watch the gloam that brings me ecstasy ; 
Come, rest thee near my heart 
With love aglow ! 

No light within the room, save wood fire's cheery 

blaze ; 
'Neath hearth the cricket chirps of vanished days ; 
Hut morn has dawned forever on my soul ! 
1 read thy love writ on a jewelled scroll 
That gleams within my heart, 
It loves thee so ! 



A SUNSET IN MARCH. 59 



A SUNSET IN MARCH. 

Ml^, sun lias served his day ihroughont llic 
liOLirs, 

Save when the sobbing wind in fitful showers 
Has driven sullen clouds, that shadows trace 
In momentary gloom that veiled his face ; 
Toward the western skies he hastens now, 
With broadening beams adorning nature's brow, 
And gleaming with a tenderness in vales ; 
His fondness lingering, though twiliglit jjales 
The blushes of his beams, within the shades 
Of the gray and unadorned wood and glades. 

In hesitation, on the barren hills, 

AVith gracious thought, his duty he fulfils, 

bestowing quickened glowings on their sides 

Where unforgotten verdure still abides ; 

He weaves with passing rays a golden spread, 

And fringing in the forests a golden thread 



6o SHEA VES. 

For l)orders of their gray and shaded brown, 
With parting care, he casts tlie splendor down 
O'er landscapes fading from his glowing gaze 
In dreamy dimnings of declining rays, 
Then onward through the kingdom of the space, 
To the goal he hastens in his daily race. 

With lengthened beams — where eastern shadows 

lay — 
From western skies he searches for his Day ; 
He floods the gray cathedrals of the earth — 
The mountain domes of nature's holy birth, 
That rear in space their everlasting spires 
Against the horizon — with benedictive fires ; 
Within the sanctuaries of their shade 
He strives to find the path that young Day made, 
When with his early rosy beams she found, 
In listening echoes that her joys resound. 
The answering voices of her first-born hours. 
That Morn, from gloom of night with love restores, 
In Aurora's cloud procession brought 
Through hues of dawning, by her blushes wrought. 



./ SUNSE7' IN MARCH. 6 1 

When summoned, Day advances toward the west 
Folding her departing hours closer to her breast ; 
Attending clouds now hasten to her side 
In multitudes, the highway to divide ; 
From north and south, in loyalty they wait 
Within tlie sky, toward the western gate ; 
The ^Vin(l is calling hosts in hurrying haste, 
That closer to the horizon are placed 
Nearer to the west, imperious in line 
Of columned hues, whose bannerets define 
The cop])er sheen of walls that rim the space 
In wondrous poise and gorgeous, magic grace. 

With sudden grandeur tlie Sun descends with Day ! 

Expectant hosts now flit in disarray, 

And in confusion, hurrying to and fro. 

The multitudes from southward, northward go 

While the gates are opening, and floods of beams 

Are streaming through the heavens in glowing 

gleams, 
That wreathe the cloudy lines with crowning golds, 
Through jewelled amethysts, in rubied folds. 



62 SHEA I 'AS. 

V:\r in ihc azure cast, on seas ot red, 

l'uri)le(l waves are ridini^, by the wind-voice Inl, 

In (U'ep carnalioni'd vioh't in llu- blue, 

'J'hrough every color of llu- raiid)o\v's hue : 

All space abounds in one rellecling r;iy, 

That reaches frcjm the Sun to jjarting Day 

In garlands for the decking of her lleet — 

Mooting in the space where tiie wincbtides nu-et,— 

TIkU decorated, moves beyond, afar, 

To wait the coming of the Iwening Star, 

In escort through the shadows gray that f;ill 

When stariy trains come forth at Evening's call ; 

Then slowly sinking, gathering the clouds 

Around his kingly throne, in golden shrouds 

'I'he Sun folds Day ; aiul in one parting gaze, 

With seeming invocation through his rays 

Renewing the hues of the fading sky 

\Vith glory, while wan Night is passing by, 

Ketiring from the space, to her ( onsigns, 

In peace, the shadows with their starry signs 

Closing fast the gates of the golden west, 

Leaving to hushing Nature, peace and rest, 



J SI/NS/-:T /N iMAUCIl. 



^'l 



While llic silver Moon-f|ii(;(-n looks in her love — 
'J'iirou^li flimning of the twilight sky above — 
Ii(,-lo\v her in a fjuicl, jjiirc, still light, 
iieuij^ii in calm icflection, upon the Night. 



64 SHEA VES. 

GOOD-NIGHT. 

I. 
OOD-NIGHT, my sweetheart, just one kiss' 
The gloam is faUing o'er our bHss ; 
'V\\Q day we '11 bind with farewell vow, 
And with '' God bless our love " endow. 
Then go thy way, my heart will call 
Where'er thou art, my love I my all ! 

II. 

Good-night, my sweetheart, round thy dreams 

May love-light shine with moon-like beams ; 

'Vhc. sun betrayed thy blushes coy 

When heart concealed its modest joy. 

Tile answ'ring thought my h()j)e will call 
Where'er thou art, my love ! my all ! 

III. 

Good-night, my sweetheart, still good-night ! 

With thee, my love, my life I i)light ; 

To thee entrust my future years. 

My joys, my sorrows, hojjes, and fears. 
Forever now my heart will call 
Where'er thou art, my own ! my all : 



KJiVEALINC. 65 



RKVKAl.INC; 



J.cnV-VVAJJJOi) cottage in tlic valley's shade ; 
Around the window, clinging jasmine twines 
The snow-white blossoms of its nc)wering vines, 
Whose spicy sweetness, by the soft winds swayed 
Through whispering leaves, that braid and braid, 
With moon-ljeams, fjuiveringin bright silver lines, 
Crossing the lattice, her fair face enshrines 
In winsome beauty, wistful blue-eyed maid. 
With love's expectancy — while shadows fell — 

She watched the twilight o'er the wood and w(;ld, 
'I'ill hills had sunk in dusk to fields below 
In vale, where echoes chimed the vesper bell ; 
Her heart, unto her soul the secret told, 

When Love passed by, that she his face might 
know ! 



C>Ci sill': A I 'A\v. 



kisCocNi rioN. 
II 

^^jrril Iciidcnu'ss <)l N;ihir(r's love .iiid j^r.icc, 
"«^l 'I'Im- Mill is h.-iciiij', ii()()ii(l;iy willi it;, l)c;iiiis 
< )'(|- v.illcy fields, wlicic sliiiiimci int', sticiiiis 
Ix<ll«'. 1 Ihcii Ixudcr hlossoiiis ill <iiiIm.i( c 
( >l minorcd Ix-.iiily, while in inleil.Kc 

Tlic liL'in'loiis le.ives iwr su'.iyiii}; iiietric liicmc:; 
For l)r(';illi ol sonllieiii wind, drowsy willi drc.iiiis 
;\lid |)elliiines llie V( )iil pi ll()iisiie:,s ol .sp.Kc. 
Two souls ;ii(' w.ilkiii}.', lliroiii;li inystcrioiis liji^lil 
'i'ii.il Ir.iiisloriiis yoiilli, .iiid destiny, ;ind lilc, 
'i'iirongli i)circ(:l love, eiil;in^icim-iit ol plow 
That \v<aves with sunbciuns, Ihnnigh a, heart's dark 
night, 
'I'lu.' gol(U.'n woofs of rc'stfulncss — not strife, 

And woe, that J.ijvc ])assc:d ])y and did not 
know ! 



/ h'j:(:.\i. n.\ V. 



^>7 



A MVA'.iW. I)AV. 



UNI{J->AMS ll;js)i(<l on llic iiiillwliccl';, 8j)r;iy 
Rainhows tiiihrd its wliirliiif^ play ; 
I)iiiipl((| ((idles, < ;il,(;liiii;.f llic twirl, 
Tossed .'I w.'ilt/, to till- lo.iniii)^ put I , 
Limpid son^-\v;i.v(; followed ;iltei, 
I'r.Ullii)}^ iiiiiriiiiirii echoed Kiii^lilcr, 
Wavelet'; ri]>pled joyous v(ji<;(-s — 
Hahbling limes thai heart rejoices ; 
All th(; wood-trees, juiisic h-ndinp;, 
Whispered wel<;oiM<: in their hending, 
When h;ii)d iii li.itid vv<: took our way, 
To erowri our heart'', true- love-tli.il. day, 
To elrii lre-(.', ne.ir the stre/mi, whr^se ih^'xrw. 
San^ Hiir;h a happy life-Ion^ drearri, 
l^'or you ;ind in<:. 



iligh hung the sun at. tid*.- (A noon ; 
Th(r wild birds hushe<i their nintin tuno; 
The rnillwheel stopped, th': gleeliil :,j;ray 
1 browsed on the streamlet, tired of play ; 



68 SHEA VES. 

The rippling song sweet cadence gave 

Where wiUow-trees kissed sleepy wave ; 

The breeze-blown leaves, with trem'lous sighing, 

Whispered that golden morn was dying ; 

Hope wove fibrous threads with grace, 

Webbing hearts in fond embrace ; 

O'er the loom Love's shuttle spun 

Th' eternal noon our lives had won, 

Thro' hush of soul that set its seal 

O'er vows that plighted woe or weal 

For you and me ! 

Shadows fell askant the westward, 

Sinking low o'er wood and greensward ; 

Song-birds home to nests were flying ; 

Soft winds moaned with gentle sighing ; 

The twilight veiled the babbling stream, 

And song-wave crooned eve's peaceful dream ; 

Love knew that halcyon day had flown, 

By mournful voice of sad intone, 

And not by dial count of hours 

That sent the dusk o'er closing flowers, 



A REGAL DAY. 69 

Our hearts had burst from folded buds, 
And blossomed full in roseate floods. 

O fulsome night of golden day, 

So sunken down through sodden gray, 

Why turned not sun again to noon, 

To crown the hours that fled too soon ; 

^Vhy stayed he not his endless flight, 

To bring time's tide aback to night ; 

Why cast he shade o'er dewy space 

That gave the day such tearful grace, 

When ]:)urpled clouds of horizon 

Wrapped regal glory round his throne 

In westward sky, ere sombre gloom 

With night had come, that paled the bloom 

Of flowers, and halo Love had worn ! 

That royal day, that summer morn, 

When hand in hand we took our way 

Where heart crowned heart with Love's own lay, 

Near elm tree, and the stream whose theme 

Sang such a happy, life-long dream 

For you and me ! 



JO SHEA I'ES. 



REVERIES. 



IS bitter cold ! the gmy and sullen night 
Peers through the window with a frowning 
stare ; 
Vhc sodden sky sulks through the dismal light, 
And shivering gloom fills all the tempest air. 

The elm tree rattles 'gainst the window-blind 
In muffled weirdness like a phantom hand ; 

Uorne on the bosom of the wintry wind 

Moans rise and fall, like voice from ghostly land. 

The sombre, fitful shadows pall for hours. 
Like funeral i)lumes that wave o'er burial train. 

And stalk with dismal pomp as darkness lowers. 
To shroud the day that sunshine sought in vain. 

In dim procession i)ass my years of life, 

And rise through darkness of the night to me ; 

A glowing vision ere rose tears or strite, 

While I'aith hung rainbows o'er my cypress tree. 



RKVKRJES. 71 

"r was wanton spring that came with gladsome air 
And filled my heart with song and growing 
love, 

A shrine where Hope laid rosary down in ])rayrr. 
With folded buds that hidden sighs might provf. 

lluL summer burgeoned, love was crowned with 
flowers. 

And lilies held their chalices on liigh 
For chrisnial dews, that sealed the birth of iiours, 

Unfolding loses through a sweetened sigh. 

'I'he sigli that chokes tlu; heart when full (;f joy 
Akin to sorrow, Hoods the soul with tears, 

And love grows languid with the dewy cloy 
That dims the shadows of the coming years. 

The roses ])erish, and the wintry wind 

Moans where the lilies droo])ed througii tears of 
woe. 
And blossoms fall in death, and leave behind 

The stalks that bend when sunmier breezes 
blow. 



72 SHEA VES. 

The sun-tanned stubble marks the fallow field 
Where grain was ripened for the harvest crown ; 

While I, in darkness, count the meagre yield 

Of spring-time's promise, through midwinter's 
frown. 



SOLITUDE. 73 

SOLITUDE. 

I. 

ENTREATMENT. 

|OLITUDE, oh, teach me where thy silence 
dwells, 

Safe guarded by thy faithful sentinels, 
In some lone tabernacle of this life ! 
I weary with the world and worldly strife, 
Where seas now swarm and surge tumultuous Avoe, 
While sorrow drives the tide's responsive flow 
In fitful alternation — no surcease 
Of passion's fire in calm of holy peace. 
Monotones seem whispering " Evermore" 
Through moaning winds that speed from shore to 

shore 
With wail and cry of Fate. Unrest and Rest, 
^he spousal unity by love unblest, 
Consorts through Discord's inharmonious vow, 
Dirge through my life their din of " Then and 

Now." 



SHEA VES. 



II. 



SUBJECTION 



ANITIES entice me with seductive wiles 
Through luscious poisons, that a trust be- 
guiles 
To kindling of a flame of fevered joy, 
Embracing Reason in its dross alloy ; 
Temptations swarm in busy images, 
Cajoling Life with tongued winsome ease. 
Besetting Resolution with despond, 
And beck'ning Retribution with their wand ; 
Ambition holds its court where, devotee, 
I worship gauds, and bend the servile knee 
To weak fictitious of the worldly heart. 
The fealty of vanity and art 
That desecrates in reverence the name 
Of Conscience as a ministrant to Fame. 



SOLITUDE. 75 



III. 



DEVOTEMENT. 



ilOLITUDE, oh, can I come to thee alone, 
And in thy shade for sinfuhiess atone ! 
Myself to know by Contemplation's voice — 
Who records all my faults,— and in my choice 
Of thy sweet silentness an evidence 
Will give to thee of all my own offence. 
In some retreat of holy hushfulness, 
Oh, give me, Solitude, the truthfulness 
That shatters all the pomps and vanities 
Of brazen gauds and idle pageantries 
To ruins in the worldly dust of Sin, 
That to my soul a peace can enter in 
Of Blessed Antepast — the Holy Dove 
That wings its flight from heaven above ! 



SHEAVES. 



M\ kUTIl 



()'!' llirou^li llu- lirlds ol llu- golden ij,iMin, 
WhcTi' llu* iwipcrs lustily siii<;, 
\ii(l llu- ^IciiuTS slioiil llu- iclr.'iiii 
As the swntli to llu- (•.iilli llicy bring, 
I )i(l she coiiii' to iiu' 
My Kiitli to l)c. 



IT. 

Not whili- the siinli",lit Icll on ihc slic.ivcs 

'rii.it sl.nilrd with lr('ij;hl foi" Ihc bin, 
V.w ch.iir th.il the liiisb.iiidin.in clravcs 
1 l.id yielded the kei nel within, 

I )i(l she (onu' to nic 
Mv Uiilh to be. 



III. 

I'liowM w;is the stul)])le, parched Ihc < orn, 

My haryest was winnowed with tears, 
r.li;j,ht ol decay on wheat nnshorn 



A/y KU'j'Ji. jy 

Had willicrcd the siiii-growth of years, 
When she came to me 
My Ruth U) l)e. 

IV. 
Gone were the gleaners, hushed were tlie fields, 

A weird l)arren waste was my fj'fe ; 
Friends ! as chaff to the winds sliow tin; yield, 
They left me in hunger and strife, 
Y(-t s//(' came to me 
My Ruth to be ! 



7S 



SHEA VES. 



ENTREAT NOT. 



NTREAT me not to leave thee : 
Imploring so doth grieve me ; 
Oh, let me linger in the sun, 
Where hope a golden thread has spun 

II 

Entreat me not to leave thee ! 
Thy coldness doth bereave me ; 
Tear not asunder wedded years, 
Now grown to one in flood of tears. 



Ill 

Entreat me not to leave thee ! 
My heart doth so deceive me ; 
If vows thou gav'st me are forgot. 
Yet love was bound with blessed knot. 



ENTREAT NOT. 79 

IV 

Entreat me not to leave thee ! 
Though scorning still receive me • 
I'liy loyal subject — oh ! my king ! 
My heart ! my love ! to thee I cling. 



80 SHEA VES. 



THE DEAD BIRD. 

I^^IOULD blue sky above find no cloudlet of 
1^^ gray 

To cover thy flight when thy song greeted day ; 
Could sun throw no beam o'er brown and white 

feather 
To hood thy fleet wing now prone on the heather ! 

How wanton the hand that sent the swift dart ! 
How cruel the wound that was torn through thy 

heart ! 
Thy little voice trilling was the sigh of sweet tune, 
Thy wings fanned a song cadence broken too soon. 

How proud was thy soar, when thy sweet matin 

song 
Met the bright dawn of day, thou had'st welcomed 

so long ! 
Now low thou art laid with plumes ruffled and torn, 
Cold, dead in the dust, while I sorrowing mourn ! 



THE DEAD BIRD. Si 

I '11 smooth down thy feathers and bind close thy 

wings, 
I '11 make thee a grave where the rivulet sings ; 
'Round thy soft ])lumage I '11 wrap the sweet clover. 
\Vith buds of wild roses thy red wound I '11 cover. 



A bunch of while daisies shall pillow thy head, 
When under the green ferns I lay thee down dead ; 
The buttercup blossoms shall catch dewy tears, 
\Vhen harebells ring re(|uiems that whippoorwill 
hears. 

With sighs I enfold thee within thy sweet shroud. 
The perfumes of wild flowers, thou song of the 

cloud I 
Bereft of one voice tuneful Day passes on, 
Yet I mourn the sad fate of a sweet songster gone ! 

When sunbeams at morn cast a glow o'er my face, 
Tshall wonder if other birds sing with the grace, 
While upward their liearts leap in song to the sky, 
'J1iat tuned thy sweet voice to glad praises or. 
high. 



82 SHEA VI'.S. 

Farewell, little bird with the wound in tiiy breast, 
Down low 'fieath the mosses I lay thee to rest ! 
No more to tlie sun wilt thou cliaiil thy refrain, 
The ferns will o'ershatlow tiiy heart rent in twain ! 



THE EASTER DAISIES. 

(near 'juk ij.crrjKN.) 

|iWl" l*0(jr;n llu; nmllioiK-d windows and ihc 
1m..^4| pictured panes, 

Where clustering angels hovered in the glory stains, 
Prismatic colored sunbeams of the dawning hours 
]''looded with a glory the Holy Alt.ir flowers ; 
yVround the Sacred Sign the stately lilies stood, 
lJl>holding chalices — in snowy sisterhood — 
That caught the streaming rays of tiie golden 

I'^aster's Morn, 
While yet uprising to the Ooss of Cilory liorn. 

lielow the purijled sunshine where silent shadows 

In all the peace and stillness of the ]Caster Day, 
In lowly, sweet intrusion, within the Holy Place, 
Were meek-eyed daisies gathered in unpretentious 
grace ; 



84 SHEA VES. 

Clustered with the liHes around the Blessed Shrine, 
Unlifted to the Emblem they did not fully shine, 
Yet to the Place they brought, in voices of the sod, 
The sermons from the fields that Blessed footsteps 
trod ! 



or TRACE, 85 



OF PEACE. 



LIFE ! in all thy fate decreed, 
Where rests in thought, in word, in deed, 
Thy mystery's devising ; 
Thy immutable uprising ; 
Through sorrow's limnings, 

Threning sadness. 
Thy soulful hymnings 
Tuned to gladness. 
Solve thou in thy rhythmal numbers 
A [problem, that my soul encumbers ; 
Within profoundness of thy shade, 
Oh, tell me where thy Peace is laid ! 

With Faith ? Who, in her meek and lowly grace, 
Seeks not the goal within the worldly race, 
To win on angry seas that Doubt foments, 
Through vain seditions that its woe laments ; 
Who sits within the temple of Belief 
The chaste and spotless vestal of a grief. 



86 SHEA VES. 

To watch the flame of ardor in the fires 
That godUness of sacred trust inspires, 
Enfolding -in her pure uplifted life 
A deathless hope in service of thy strife. 

With Love ? In lustre of the gold and clay, 

Allied by false Desire — salvationless astray — 

Who frets and irritates a quenchless flame 

Within the heart, deluding to a shame 

A trust and confidence betrayed. 

Through artifice, and direful masquerade 

Of Woe, who wears the mask of Love's own face, 

While false, beguiling wiles its vows debase. 

Mocking the symbols of its chaste repose 

In destitution that Desire bestows I 

Or in the love of harmony and truth, 
Unknown by sin, or sorrow's kindred ruth. 
That glows within the heart in sUnlent light, 
Defended from the beggary and blight 
Of vows inconstant, by a Holy love 
That guards its duty with the Peace above ; 
Adorning all the waste and wilderness 



OF PEACE, 87 

Of life, in bloom of hope and tenderness 
And verdure of a pure undying day, 
That closes but in night of Death's array ! 

With Pride ? Who subjugates the heart's repose 
Through bitter conflicts that its pomps disclose ! 
Eclipsing day through one perpetual night, 
From which the glowworm love has taken flight ; 
The reaper of the wheat all bare of flowers, 
Who gathers in the darkness its golden showers, 
To store them where no stray impassioned seed 
Would find the fallow of a goodly deed, 
And grow to loveliness that suns in day 
The pity of a life in love's decay ; 
Who folds itself in the sepulchre of years, 
To gnaw the rust of desolation's tears 
In melancholy gloom, dismantling the heart 
Degraded through the selfishness of art ; 
Whose footsteps clanging on the rocks in scorn 
Trample in the lily dust the rose twin-born ! 

With Time ? Mutating in its changeful moods 
The zeal of liope to care that sorrow broods ; 



88 SHEA ]'KS. 

Its days, the fugitives from fickle joys, 
I'liisued by^ passions that Remorse destroys ; 
'Hu- horde of i)arasites that Lust enchains, 
1\ ion-bound to wheel that Fate ordains. 
Revolving round the heart in corroding sin, 
Partaking of the banquet of its peace within, 
To sip the golden-beaded wine of love, 
In insolence, its dainty food to prove, 
In re-begotten triumphs, where a regent reigns 
In sovereignty of will that corruption feigns ! 

Or else, within the temple of a trust 
To gleam amid the jewels of its dust. 
And flame in rosy hues across its sky 
'i'he dawn of ho})e, where lurid shadows lie, 
iMiiitting rays of loveliness through blame. 
When vanquished in its battle for a fame, 
'i'he wreck and ruin of a fond desire 
Obscures in ashes all its quenched fire ! 

Ah Life ! thy deei)'ning mysteries devise 
Distrust, where woes immutable uprise. 
Thy Pride decrees a will to subjugate 



OF PEACE. 89 

The heart, Ijy conquering hope of soul innate ; 

Desire will vanquish tenderness of love 

Through grief and wretchedness that sorrows jjrove ; 

While Time mutates within thy mortal dust, 

Destroying tabernacles of its hope and trust ; 

W'ith pain and tortures tormented and distressed, 

Thy human being merges into woe oppressed ; 

Thy days, that dawn in golden spheres of light, 

To grayness wane, sojourners of the night ; 

In feasts thy pampered luxuries abide, 

Carousals of an indolence — untried 

Through ban of poverty's lamenting cry, 

That germs the good within humanity. 

Thy vanities soar to limits of thy space. 

And fluttering o'er a shame, grovel in disgrace : 

Thy conquests mark in marble efifigy 

The mile-stones of thy immortality, 

Beyond the desert of thy sandy shore, 

Where thy soul endureth for evermore. 

And yet thy J^'aith, though human, is divine. 
In rest, the baubles of thy name to her resign. 
Her trust embraces through the mist of doubt 



90 SHEA VES. 

The glory of thy soul, holy, pure, devout ; 

W^ithin thy tossings — fathomless in sin — 

She bids the light of hope to enter in 

And manifest the future by its glow 

Of godly ardors, in benedictions flow. 

Within her peace she folds a sorrow's sigh 

In tenderness, when sad regrets are passing by. 

To tiring vigils of a wan despair 

She gives the resignation of her prayer ; 

When sin's abasing fetters choke the soul 

She opens wide the door of Heavenly goal. 

Divine in sweet forgiveness — to man denied 

By man when human sin is cried 

Derisive, in a voice relentless in its call. 

Pursuing in its vengeance the human pall. 

To dress it in a garb that human nature scorns- 

Thy Faith, e'er pitiful, its woe adorns 

With memories of redemption through a life 

Of grace that arrogance denies to mortal strife. 

Alas ! how frail are tenants of thy days. 
How vain the contests of thy mortal ways ! 
Defeated, conquered, silenced by thy dead, 



OF PEACE. 91 

O Life ! what triumphs crown thy mortals' head ! 

The victories of Time are but the dust, 

The victories of Love but hope and trust, 

Thy Pride, thy Will, in all thy sovereign power, 

Crumble to the doom of the mortal's hour. 

Ambitious natures still with thee abide 

Li love and vanity and fulsome pride ; 

Till worn with want — the penury of gain — 

The restless heart is filled with nameless pain. 

And Death, more merciful to mortal shade, 

^Vith lowly Faith thy Peace in rest hath laid. 



92 SHIiA VES. 



AFTER TWILIGHT. 



l^ 



HE wild bird has chanted his evening hymn, 
And sleeps through the night on the leafy 
limb, 
Which the soft wind tosses and gently swings, - 
While he pillows his head 'neath his downy wings. 

II. 

And his little brown mate dreams on the nest 
That cradles the brood 'neath her feathery breast. 
While the soft dews fall from Heaven above, 
On the sheltering wings of her mother love. 

III. 

'T is full of the moon, and its big round face 
Shines with a splendor that fills the blue space ; 
The white fleecy clouds sail on through the sky, 
Fantastic in guise as a fleet on high. 



AFTER TWILIGHT. 93 

IV. 

Down in the meadows where bright daisies sleep. 

The grasses bend low a silence to keep ; 

The murmuring stream is lulling a rest, 

While the stars shine down on its peaceful breast. 

V. 

All through the woodland that fringes the field 
The lune light gleams like a pale silver shield, 
And the whippoorwill mourns with plaintive cry 
For his mate in the meadows nestward to fly. 

VI. 

Beneath mountain- ranges the still shadows lay, 
Shrouding the valley in soft robes of gray, 
Chast'ning the duskness of dell far below, 
And glades in the forest where rivulets flow. 

VII. 

All nature is calm ! The stillness of night, 
Sublime in its muteness, grandeur, and might, 
Is crowned with the peaceful presence of God, 
From the mountain's high top to the valley's low sod. 



94 SHEA VES. 

VIII. 
Harmonious lyres tuned to God's praise^ 
Voices of nature their prayer vigils raise, 
E'en through a hush, adorations intone, 
Vibrating through Time to Eternity's throne 



THE HEART. 95 



THE HEART. 



HOU foolish heart, so full of care, 
Why seek a future sorrow ? 
Receive thy troubles share by share 

And burthen not to-morrow ; 
For day by day thy bread is doled. 
While day by day thy years unfold ! 

Thou selfish heart, so full of sighs, 
Love gains a love by giving ! 

The grateful bud in sun's light lies, 
Its bloom in beams receiving ; 

While day by day the beauty grows. 

That day by day in sunshine glows ' 

Thou cruel heart, so full of scorn. 

That calls thy life a duty 
For nursing wounds of sorrow's thorn. 

Why scar thy restless beauty. 
When day by day in healing calm, 
Each day by day, peace brings a balm ? 



96 SHEA VES. 

Thou happy lieart, so full of love, 

With joy a joy dividing 
With generous care, while blessings prove 

Forever thy abiding ; 
'Fhy days are days that bring the sun, 
Thy days are days of blossoms won ! 

Thou faithful heart — love incomplete- 
Meet thy fate unfaltering ! 

Life's nectar sip — the bitter sweet — 
With trust and hope unaltering ; 

Though day by day brings darker night, 

Yet day by day dawns newer light ! 



UNTA UGIIT. 97 



UNTAUGHT. 



1 



HE sun of youth, whose golden beams 
Dawn with the days from unsought dreams, 



Where memory claims no fading flowers 
Tliat perish with the summer hours. 
Casts shadows from a life's first bloom — 
Not cowering sighs of scentless gloom — 
O'er paths that open to the heart 
A highway, where no subtle art 
Can rear the milestones of a race ; 
For Love walks on in winsome grace 
With timid guests, that Hope receives 
'Neath arches wreathed with budding leaves. 
The unfolded blossoms' waiting hues, 
That Love, victorious, reviews. 
When, in the nuptials of a vow, 
He binds their blushes 'round a brow. 



9.8 SHEA VES. 



MAY. 



I 



HE apple-blossoms and the clear blue sky ; 
The honest robins' quaint inquiring cry ; 
The inason swallows building 'neath the eaves ; 
The maples flowering in their red-winged leaves ; 
The bluebirds flying from east to west 
While fashioning the patterns of a nest ; 
The homely dandelions in the grass 
Now looking in our faces as we pass ; 
The modest little murmurs in tlie streams ; 
The sleepy valleys waking from their dreams ; 
The dainty greening feathers on the trees ; 
The gentle whispers in the evening breeze ; 
The fringing willows bending to the ground ; 
The solemn frog's songs croaked with mournful 

sound ; 
While twilight lingers in the golden west, 
And the yellow primrose opens on thy breast, 
Sweet May day, in thy welcome face I see 
The summer blossoms, that will come to me. 



THY HEAkT AND MINE. 99 



THY HEAPs.T AXD MIXE. 



^jOULD'ST thou call thy heart to thy pensive 
^1 face, 
Where thy quickened soul, in a holy glow, 
Haloes thy blushes with its golden grace. 

Like a sunbeam guarding with its overflow 
A nestling rosebud. through love's interlace, 
What would it answer me ? 

Should I ask thy heart shall clasping of our hands 

Thus interweave our lives in sweet repose, 
As the flushing hues and the leafy strands 

Will robe o'er the heart of the full-bloomed 
" rose 
A perfumed life, blessed through God's own com- 
mands, 

What would its answer be ? 



100 SHEA VES. 

Could'st thou from thy heart transfigure unto mine 
A rubied life, all dressed in Love's attire, 

With a voiceless vow that mingled mine and thine 
With love, transfused through a flameless fire ; 

Should my beseeching call from thee the sign, 
What would thy answer be ? 



AfV HEART AND THINE. lOI 

II. 
MY HEART AND THINE. 



OULD I call my heart, through blushes, to 
my face, 

'T would wander, lost in waves of rosy flow ; 
My soul would whisper, through a mystic grace, 

" A heaven waits tliee in my perfect glow "; 
Then trust thee not the hue that blushes trace 
For answer unto thee ! 

Should 'st thou ask my heart — with my hand clasped 
in thine — 
To tell thee of two lives in sweet repose, 
'T would sigh for blessings of the love Divine 

That robes our lives in glory, not the rose 
That fades and crumbles on an earthly shrine ; 
Thus would it answer thee ! 



102 SHEAVES. 

Could I, from my heart, thus deify a theme 
For Life, and render unto thee a flame, 

Enkindling fusion into one sui)reme, 

Thy heart and mine for covenant and name, 

The signet, Love would give in gleam 
Of soul, to answer thee ! 



CONSOLATION. IO3 



CONSOLATION. 

RIEVE not thy spirit with thy sighing ! 
Though Death divorces thee from love, 
And through thy vigils with the dying 
Thou 'st heard the footfalls from above, 
The angels pacing, pacing 

Without thy chamber door, 
Through earthly dust were tracing 
The flight to Heavenly shore 1 

Weep not in tears of sad confessing ! 

While sighs are beating at thy heart, 
In griefs, thy empty arms are pressing 
So close to wounds now torn apart, 
The angels pacing, pacing 
Without thy chamber door, 
'' Through earthly dust are tracing 

The flight to Heavenly shore ! 



104 SHEA VES. 

Shrine not thy heart in one entombing, 

And sepulchre thy life in death, 
Though folded are her hands in glooming, 
And stilled forever is her breath. 
For angels pacing, pacing 

Without some chamber door, 
Througli dust are ever tracing 
The flight to Heavenly shore. 



SIGNIFICA TION, I05 



SIGNIFICATION. 



'RECALL the Past ! it is not thine ! 
O'er buried years let ivy twine, 



With friendly shade, obscuring mould, 
That clings to ruins crumbling down 
From dome that once reared golden crown 

To Heaven's high arch when vows were told ! 

Shed burning tears ! through mournful stare 
They furrow scars where heart-wounds glare, 

And mark the pace of broken faith ; 
'Neath ragged stone of ashen gray. 
Thy trusting love with sorrow lay 

In tomb of Woe, its tearful wraith ! 

Grieve not thy heart ! the past forget ; 
Fold round thy future no regret ; 

Beyond the gloom the Sun's still shrined, 
And through the golden rifts, the bow 
Of promise still with hope shall glow, 
'Neath low'ring clouds with silver lined ! 



I06 SHEA VES. 



REVIEWING. 



STllKART to heart in one confession 



m 



And in fear, 
Let lis view the sad procession 

Of one year : 
Passing in its mute beseeching 

With its days, 
Let us with an inward teaching 

Sound its praise. 

Through a sorrow and dejection 

On its way, 
Pale with tears and recollection 

Of the day 
Gliding through the twilight's breaking 

Like a wraith, 
From her dreams and sighs awaking. 

There is Faith. 



REVIEWING. 107 

Here, all clad in dewy flowers 

Newly born, 
In her arms the golden hours 

Of the morn 
(You remember all their faces), 

Is the spring : 
Sunbeams of forgotten graces 

Here they bring. 

In the shadow of a sadness 

And a sigh, 
Through the perfumes of a gladness 

Passing by. 
In the autumn's chill enduring, 

All the air 
Of the summer's sweet alluring. 

Love is there. 

Crowned with asphodels and pansies 

Robed in gold. 

With the purple of Love's fancies 

In its fold. 



lOS SHEAVES. 

All the dews of Love's own promise 

In its breath 

Wheri it took our sunimer from us — 

That is Death. 

In the night of winter's moaning 

And its rue, 
In its peace for life atoning 

'Neath the yew, 
In its rested hands upholding 

Not one sign, 
With the darkness round it folding 

In a shrine, 

Let us lay the year in flowers 

In a tomb, 
With the memory of its hours 

In its gloom, 
Summer's sunning, winter's sighing. 

All in one. 
Love's beginning in its dying 

All undone. 



THE SHADOW LAND. lOQ 



THE SHADOW LAND. 

— I shall go to him but he sliall not return to me." 

II .Samuel, xii, 23. 

HERE is a valley of the shadows, in the dim 
unknown, 
Where in answering summons one by one go all 

alone. 
No htiman eye hath seen its pathway, in mystery 

veiled, 
Yet human liearts have mourned the numbers that 
its darkness paled. 

Loved ones, dear ones, go before us, and then the 

way seems near ; 
Glancing in their quiet faces its shadows disappear ; 
Calm in stillness, no responses, what mystery divides 
The placid sleeping from our grieving where such 

peace abides ? 



I 10 SHEA VES. 

In its slumbers hands arc folded in peace across a 

breast 
That guided all our wandering footsteps in a life's 

unrest ; 
While we in vain arc calling backward from its dark 

confines 
Voices that arc hushed forever in calm that gives 

no signs. 

Then in our pathway grow the flowers filled with 

summer bloom, 
And in our lives some voice will cheer us in our 

lonely gloom ; 
From day to day the sun is shining, and with a 

gladsome grace 
A love grows nearer still and dearer in some gentle 

face. 

Though mist is ever o'er our faces, the valley always 

near, 
Yet hand in hand we ])luck the blossoms while we 

linger here ; 



THE SHADOW LAND. Ill 

Till those who walk in love beside us within its 

shadows pale, 
We cannot follow — they divide us in their dimning 

veil ! 

'T is then that, loitering in the sunshine, grows a 

weary care ; 
We search the shadows, ever longing, for one voice 

is there 
That could answer to our sighing, and guide us with 

one hand 
Through the mysteries of the valley of the shadow 

land. 

Wo fear no longer, weary pilgrims hastening to its 
shore, 

Regretting not we leave the sunlight, for loved ones 
gone before 

Witt greet us in the valley shadows of the dim un- 
known. 

Though we wander forth in darkness one by one 
alone. 



1 1 2 SHEA VES. 



VIGILS. 



HE watch of Nativity — Life ! 
31MI The fulfihnent of law and strife 
hito the world through a travailing, 
Predestination's unravelling 

Of mystery, through Immutable God ; 
Lhe divinity of soul in a clod 
Come to the light. 
Through night, through night. 

Throes of Maternity 
Thy Pre-eternity ! 

II. 

The watch of Maturity — Man ! 

A completeness though under the ban 
Of counting Life's sands for thee numbered. 
Till weary with mountains encumbered ! 

Serving probation, to Time a slave, 

Sin thy inheritance down to the grave, 



VIGILS, 1 1 3 

Bond of Earth light, 

Soul's human night, 

To Earth consecrated, 
Through Earthly created ! 

III. 
The watch of Identity — Age ! 
The audit of Time to assuage ; 
Stealthily clinging to servitude, 
Counting the years as an interlude 

Indexed by Time in lines on thy brow, ' 
Though set with the Harvest that Death will 

mow, 
Through the dark night. 
Till Light of Light, 

Divine Restitution, 
Gives Absolution ! 

IV. 

' The watch of Eternity — Death ! 
Transition of Soul by a breath 
Into its God from Earth's travailing ; 
Predestination's unravelling 



1 14 SHEA VES. 

Of Mystery's Epitaph — mortal clay, 

The foul's earthly Cenotaph — mortal day, 

Through Night to Light, 

Angelic flight, 

By Faith consecrated, 
By Death re-created ! 



MEM OR V. I I 



MEMORY. 



HE day in peace within the darkness lies ; 
In clouds that sunshine left within the skies, 
The rosy hues that gathered in the west 
Have trailed their scattered draperies o'er her 

breast ; 
Through shadows, in the moon-rest of the night, 
Her hours passed down with sun that lent them 

light, 
To dimness of the perfumed twilight gloom, 
That lurks v/ithin the hearts of flowering bloom 
When Evening comes, through leafy summers 

themes, 
Its vespers tuned to calm and peaceful dreams. 

Ah, Memory ! with twilight con\es thy hour. 

The silence of the soul unfolds a flower 

Wh'ere, blooming with the night ingrained with 

lines 
Through crayons of its shade, thy bright sun 

shines; 



Il6 SHEAVES. 

The smiles that veil a sombre sorrowing heart 
Will rest jn moon-lent shadows where thou art ; 
The blushes soften o'er a paling face 
Their flushings, through dreamings of thy tender 

grace ; 
In perfumes, rising in the briglit array 
And fragrance of a well-remembered day, 
Through joy thy festals come, the hidden train 
Of life ; yet Duty, in heroic pain 
Serving Conscience, o'er the intrusive flowers 
Casts the shadows of unforgotten hours ; 
In grief that answers in the mute reply, 
And tenderness that sanctifies a sigh, 
Thy blossoms flower in the speechless love 
And silence where a rank-grown sorrow throve ; 
Thy gleams of sunshine search within thy thought 
For sighs through dust that mortal sorrows 

wrought ; 
The calmed reflective grieving for the dead 
Lingers in the shadows where Hope is led 
Through darkness of thy consecrated years, 
Receiving dew, through chrism of thy tears ! 



MEM OR V. 117 

In SLinbeamed thought, O Memory ! roll thy scroll. 
Hide from sorrow, in peacefiilness of soul, 
The grievous ]:)ang of all thy mortal throes 
That rest within the sepulchre of woes : 
With earnest sober hope dictate to life 
Tha twilight peace that follows all its strife, 
When folded in the drapery of Night 
It rests within the threshold of its Light ! 



I I'd 



SHEA VES. 



DESPAIR NOT. 



HY despair when I am here ! 
Perfect love outcasteth fear ; 
All my heart is thine — with thee abides ; 
All thy grief is mine — if woe betides. 



11. 



Why lament with care opprest ! 

Cradled on my faithful breast ; 
Round thy face a glow — the hush of peace- 
Tears no longer flow and sorrows cease. 



III. 

Why protest and hope im])]ore ! 

Folded in my arms, no more 
Sigli with sad intone ; so near my lieart 
How could I bemoan love rent apart ! 



DESPAIR NOT. IIQ 

IV. 

Why pursue a phantom joy ! 

Alluring hope — a vain decoy, 
Love 's a holy shrine, and waits thy vow 
Seal our trust divine — forever ! now ! 



I20 SHEA VES. 



MY ROSE. 



N fond remembrance of the summer day, 
When on thy green tree blushing 
I found thy sweetness, while the dew-drops lay 
Within thy hectic flushing ; 

I will love thee, and caress thee, 
Though in sadness I possess thee. 
Pale withered Rose — 

And Thorn ! 

To dust and crumbling all thy beauties fade, 

While to the winds by sighing 
I toss thy perfume, through the impress made 
On leaves by Love when dying ; . 

Yet I love thee, and caress thee. 
Though in sadness I possess thee. 
Pale withered Rose — 

And Thorn ! 



MV ROSE. 121 

Though bloom and fragrance and a wondrous 
grace 
Are from thy green tree springing, 
And rearing beauty, through another face 
Than thine, where Love was clinging ; 
Yet I love thee, and caress thee, 
Though in sadness I possess thee, 
Pale withered Rose — 

And Thorn ! 



122 SHEAVES, 



A TRUSTING HEART. 

TRUSTING heart, with hope full freighted, 
Once launched a sail on Love's high sea, 
That in its trackless waves was fated 
A shivering, shattered wreck to be ! 

'Neath amber skies with sunshine glowing 

In glamours of the summer day, 
Rocked by the winds that balms were blowing, 

The mirrored craft on billows lay. 

Its envoy, Trust, through sweet beguiling, 
The jewelled heart of Faith had won ; 

While Promise, Doubt was reconciling 
Through golden glows that Joy had spun. 

Till through the tides of Tears decreeing. 
In moonlight of the heart's wan night, 

Through tempests of Distrust's foreseeing, 
'T was driven to Despair's dark night. 



A TRUSTING HEART, 1 23 

In chilling sighs, when day was breaking 
And the mystic shores of Fate drew near, 

Pale Faith from dreams of Trust was waking 
To grief and all its rueful fear ! 

With moorings lost in fitful sorrows, 
The sails of Heart's craft furled in woe 

Of sad to-days and sad to-morrows. 
Drifted through the tides' reflow. 

From weary toss of trustful splendor 

The wreck was stranded in to shore, 
When Faith had yielded full surrender 

On Love's high sea, for evermore 1 



1 24 SHEA VES. 



RECOMPENSE. 



SEND for thee by white-winged messenger, 

I call her Faith ; 
All swathed in peace, close to her bosom lies 

My life's one wraith. 
In chrismal dew's anointed fall 

Prepared for death, 
It sleeps in calm repose, sin-shrived through prayer 

Of dying breath. 

Sustaining flight, Faith wraps around with air 

Her plumed wings , 
Unwearied in her quest, a missioned hope 

To thee she brings. 
So swift through clouds and skies, she hovers not 

With sacred trust 
Near sun, lest dazzling rays might trail her way 

With earthly dust. 



RE COM PEN SE. 1 2 5 

She offers thee thy guerdon with a vow- 
That binds the years, 

Within the silence of eternal death 

Baptized in tears ; 

From life thus purified I thee implore 

Lift not the veil ; 

Attending angels bear on high the soul, 

My holy grail ! 

If closer to my heart the sunbeams glow- 
When thou art near. 

And rise in waves that overwhelm my soul, 

I shall not fear ; 

But should'st thou glance within its sealed shrine 

And call the sigh, 

That wafts a vision 'fore my eyes, through tears, 

Then pass me by ! 



1 26 SHEA VES. 



TEARS. 



HE tears that meet the heart in sorrow, 

And whehii a grief in their refreshing dew, 
Will flow to rifts of some To-morrow, 

Whose sun will gild the Cypress and the Yew 
With precious glory of a hope through God, 
Who stars a Heaven o'er the earthy sod, 
Though breaking heart of feeble nature mourns 
That Death with crown immortal Love adorns! 

The tears that flow in wrathful contest 

To seas of woe, that rage with lashing waves. 
Will strand life's shore with wrecks of conquest, 
The drifted spoils of Love that memory craves, 
The spoils we drink from Life's enchanted cup 
When Pleasure pours the wine and bids us sup 
In thirst, till reeling with a drunken breath, 
The heart is torn with fatal shaft of Death ! 



TEARS 127 

The tears that flow from Blessed Fountain 

When smitten rock of sin is torn apart, 
Will deluge Evil 'neath the mountain 

Where Olives grow that shade the erring heart, 
The Zion of a Life Victorious, 
The soul on Heights by God made glorious, 
Arrayed in Light, whence Truth has entered in 
Beatified by Faith and Peace within ! 



128 SHEAVES. 

MY INGLE. 



IHE back log on the fire-dogs burns ; 
Its red flame flickers to and fro ; 



On window-pane Frost deftly turns 
Fantastic landscapes, laced with snow, 
While chilling blasts of winter blow ! 

Draw curtains low, shut out the night. 
Near fender wheel the old arm-chair ; 

Come sit thee down by hearth-stone light, 
While freezing wind, in wild despair, 
Howls maddened through the frosty air I 

We '11 count to-night our wedlock years 
By ruddy glow that cheers the room, 

The wintry fears so fraught with tears, 

And summery suns of young Love's bloom 
That towering Pine and Palm illume. 

Contentment guards thy steadfast heart. 
And on thy brow, where hand of Peace 

Has left its sign, the shadows start 

From wrinkles where Time left the crease- 
The index tracing youth's release. 



MY INGLE. 129 

Wan grow thy hands whence missions sped 
Through goodly deeds now ripe in beam 

That moonHghts o'er thy silvered head 
A halo crown, where blessings gleam 
Of (rod — His bounteous love supreme. 

Thougli chaplet wove of youth's red flowers 
Has paled through age to waxen hue, 

And years freighted with wearying hours 
Are echoes of a tearful rue, 
Dear Ingle, thou wert ever true ! 

Hand joined to hand in wedlock life 
With patient trust and faith inwove, 

E'er guiding me through all the strife, 
In tender, true, abiding love, 
Sweet compensations didst thou prove 

Thus looking at our wedded years 
By ruddy glow that cheers the room 

Tl*e wintry fears, though fraught with tears, 
Through summery suns of all life's bloom, 
Beyond the Palms the Pines illume ! 



i'SO SHEAVES. 

WHEN. 



I. 

HEN I am dead, and in the dust you lay down 
low 



The tenement which held my soul's immortal glow, 

And clods fall earth to earth, weep, Love, for me no 

more. 

Though sorrow whelm your heart that I have gone 

before 

II. 

But when alone you leave me there, cast down two 

Palms 

In fashion of a Cross, the Sign that ever calms, 

And covers all our sins ; resting beneath its shade, 

Submissive to God's will, my soul, my hopes, are laid. 

III. 
O Love ! upon my grave erect no sculptured stone, 
Lest hand of passer-by shall point to name unknown; 
But ask the flowers to grow their incense borne to 

God, 
And tempt the birds to sing His praises o'er the sod. 



WHEN. 1 3 1 

IV. 

When you go there, Love, nor sorrow bring nor 

tears, 
Though dust to dust be crumbling o'er my mortal 

years ; 
But strive to find beyond life's mystery the Crown 
That lustres Faith and Peace from Heavenly Cross 

cast down. 

V. 
When years have passed, O Love, if yet upon the 

way 
You wait the summons, struggling still in mortal 

clay ; 
If memory calls my name, answer, "I knew it well." 
'T is all — to be forgot is fate, and Life's sad knell ! 



n2 SlIEAVEii. 



TO A PANSY. 



HREE little faces beneath thy purple hood 
Are bending to the rising of the sun ; 
Love-in-idleness is crowned with golden snood, 
While pale Remembrance a sombre veil hath 
spun 
From the shade of dawning twilight o'er the wood ; 
Self-contented Heart's-ease is looking at the 
twain, 
And sighs : "Ah, me ! between two sorrows choose : 

To wear a fillet round the heart with pain, 
Or veil it with possession of a love — to lose ! " 



AN ALLEGORY. 1 33 



AN ALT.EGORY. 



HILE wandering o'er life's desert land:;, 
Amid the waste of burning sands, 
Beneath a Palm I found a spring ; 
Weary, I laid me down to rest, 
Drank from its fount and was refreshed, 
Fanned by the zephyrs' wing. 

Beside its pure and limpid stream 
I slept, while in a visioned dream 

A voice in tender plea. 
Beneath the Palm-tree's cooling shade. 
Where gentle zephyrs round me played, 

Thus whispered unto me : 

"When struggling for the might and right, 
Thou 'rt faint and weary with the fight, 

This pure, cool spring will give 
New strength for life ; go, battle on. 
Till victory for the ^nith is won, 

And thou hast learned to live. 



1 34 SHEA VES. 

" Sift thou its sands to find thy gold, 
Thou 'rt lost and wandering from the fold 

For husks of Pleasure's goal. 
Trust in thy heart throughout the day, 
At night I guard thy weary way ; 

Rest, sleep, thou tired soul." 

I wakened in a blessed calm ; 
Another stood beside the Palm. 

Who claimed the spring his own. 
Ah ! the voice ! my dream ! fled and gone 
While I was forced to wander on 

Amidst the warring crowd — alone I 



H 



THE LOST SUNBEAMS. I 35 

THE LOST SUNBEAMS. 

N shadows lost, two sunbeams wandered side 
by side, 

One v\'ith a lowly meekness, one with haughty pride. 
A violet of the woodshade raised her modest face 
In chaste enquiring wonder and a stainless grace, 
In gentle salutation, as they were passing by, 
While tears of dew were falling from her purple eye ; 
Mute in love's own dreaming, unfolding all her 

leaves, 
Her humble sweet petition the lowly beam per- 
ceives ; 
In longing hesitation, weary for a rest. 
In trusting, pure submission, hovering o'er her 

breast ; 
Its former life regretting, the prison of Day's heart, 
By stormy mandate driven to wandering far apart, 
Within the darkness seeking dews of blossom's tears, 
Xhat live within the weeping of defenceless fears ; 
In dumbness of appealing one sign of love it made, 
And, the violet embracing, was lost within her shade ! 



136 SHEAVES. 

Late with the Autumn lingering, one Rose in its 

bloom 
(While tlie sunbeam proudly wandered alone in 

gloom), 
With a gaze unfaltering, with her blushes crowned, 
Looked Avithin the echoing where the shadows 

frowned ; 
Lonely in her solitude, seeking other flowers, 
Unfaded, though forgotten, in the quiet hours, 
In gentle recognition of sorrow and distress, 
In fondness, offering expiation in caress, 
Her speechless perfume wafted to the beam of 

pride, 
Still lost within the shadows where all griefs abide. 
In noble desolation banished from a life, 
Where peaceful Day was lying dead in clouds of 

strife ; 
Through chill and grief abiding in dignity of blame, 
To Rose, in lonely blooming, the beam in pity came ; 
Though lost to Day forever, voiceless in its death. 
In Rose bloom resurrected it won a perfumed 

breath ! 



TANGLES. 137 

TANGLES. 

'PINNING tlie threads ! the wheel goes 
iBiSiJ&@i round ! 
Love liolds the distaff, yet tangles are found ; 
Stop in the whirl — heart mad with joy — 
The fibre is twisted, and Love will destroy. 

Weaving the web I watch well the loom I 
Love holds the shuttle, and dark shadows gloom ; 
Trust not thy heart — while the sun gleams 
Unravel the shadows, and fill in with beams. 

Sowing the seeds I unwinnowed grain ! 
Love seeks a harvest within a broad plain ; 
Furrow with care — level the lines. 
For gleaners will gather while the sun shines. 

Binding tlie sheaves ! reaping in song I 
Love holds the sickle — beware of the thong I 
Chaff flies to wind — heavy grain bends, 
Yet heart-broken sorrows Love never mends. 



38 



SHEA VES. 



LIFE. 






IFE'S whirl and din ! 
The sands run in ; 

Work, busy brain ; 

Toil, care, and pain 

Encompass thee ; 

Mortality 

Thy destiny, 

Humanity 

Thine equity, 
Divinity 
Thy God ! 



DEA TH. I 39 



Tf^^^ 



DEATH. 

II. 
EATH solves the doubt 
he sands run out ; 
Rest, weary brain, 
From care and pain, 
Anxiety, 
And agony, 
In harmony. 
Tranquillity, 
Eternity, 
Of God : 



I40 SHEAVE. 



THOU 



EARER, dearer, art thou grown, 
Lost forever, thou, my own ! 
Nearer through the hush of sighs, 
Dearer while the love-fire dies, 
Woe betides us. 
Fate divides us ! 

Drifting, drifting far apart, 
Thou and I, my own dear Heart ! 
Drifting in one life-long dream 
Lost in echoes of love's theme. 

Thou my gladness, 

Thou my sadness ! 

Nameless, blameless was our love. 
Yet confessions sorrows prove ! 
Silent, speechless, mute and lone, 
Let us lose the love we won 

In the driftings. 

And the riftings I 



BURYING THE BLOSSOM. I4I 



BURYING THE BLOSSOM. 



N the dust, in its perfume, we bury the rose ; 
Though the bud of a promise its weary leaves 
close ; 
Unfolded too soon, in the bright summer days, 
It crumbled to death in the sun's burning rays ! 

Recalling the thought of a summer-day dream, 
As it passes in morn through a golden sunbeam, 
The mourning wind sighs in a dirgeful refrain, 
Over the corse and- its funeral train. 

Only a moment, for one fleecy cloud 
Has palled o'er its face a dim sombre shroud. 
While close to the lips of its once perfum.ed breath, 
A thorn, with the rose, lies paled in its death ! 

In^ its crypt and its night we lower its bier. 
While reading the sermon, "tear unto tear," 
In a sad invocation over one life 
That rests in repose from its sorrow and strife. 



142 SHEA VES. 

In memory sighing, we leave it alone, 
It needs not the mark of a gleaming white stone ; 
Though a dead blossom, it lent a sweet grace 
To one thought that Time can never efface ! 



TO A BUTTERFLY. 1 43 



TO A BUTTERFLY. 



HOU flying flower, go fan thy wings in sun- 
beams, 

Receive the pension that the glow bestows 
On beauty, in the mellowness of noon-dreams, 
While rocking in the cradle of a rose. 

Should thy golden wings from tire of passion pale, 
Through sighing for the rose of perfumed breath. 

To the lily fly, her snowy chalice scale, 

Baptize them in her dew — then fold them down in 
death. 



1-44 SHEAVES. 



^ WAITING IN THE SHADOWS. 



'1ST to the summons of thy heart, 
Dost hear the love watch calling ? 



" Come through the lane at twilight hour, 
When shadows low are falling." 

Hark to the plaintive voice of Love, 

Born of a mute appealing, 
Whose sighs are wandering lone and lost 

Through heart of thy revealing. 

Hush ! through the stillness of the night, 
'Neath flowery coverts hiding, 

Unpinioned Love is wafting signs 
To tryst — and thy abiding. 

Ask for his wings for Heart's convoy. 
To haste the answer calling ; 

Thy lover waits — 't is twilight hour, 
And shadows low are falling ! 



WOO/.VG. 145 



WOOINXx. 

!XOT a blue ribbon in thy gleaming gold hair, 
I Entwining its ripples that shadow thy face, 



Where the sunbeams are kissing the roses so fair, 
That blush through thy modesty's grace. 

Lift up the lashes of thy violet eyes 

While the love light within them deepens their 
hue, 
Ere they pale in the Shade and thy heart fire 
dies, 
Drowned in the deptns of tneir heavenly dew. 

Ah ! what more could Love need to welcome the 
day, 
Than the kiss from thy lips now enticing me so ? 
And why should Love sigh when the day passed 
away, 
If sealing the night they bid Sorrow to go ? 



14^ SHEA VES. 

And why does my heart sigh for sun gone too soon, 

When the smiles from thy face can kindle a flame 

That would glow in my life with the fervor of 

noon, 

And scorch it to ashes, if Love thou shouldst 

blame ? 

Ah ! how my heart wooes, in fear and opprest, 
For life that would float through the tide of thy 
love ; 

And why should it drift from its haven of rest, 
For have I not thee, Love, and heaven above ? 






NOT FORGOTTEN. 1 4; 

NOT FORGOTTEN. 

HOUGH despair and grief pursue thee, 
MJ^ And thy soul by sin is tried, 
May the grace of faith subdue thee. 

May its peace with thee abide. 
Though thy footsteps wandering stray, 

Thou are not forgotten ; 
Pilgrim, watch and pray ! 

Though the wounds from thorns delay thee 

On tliy weary way oppressed, 
Fear not — trust — He wuil repay thee 

In the haven of His Rest. 
Though thy footsteps wandering stray, 

Thou art not forgotten ; 
Pilgrim, watch and pray ! 

Day will dawn though dark the night be 

Meek and lowly kiss the rod, 
Clasp the staff though sorrows smite thee, 

Plead for mercy from thy God. 
Though thy footsteps wandering stray, 

Thou art not forgotten ; 
Pilgrim, watch and pray ! 



148 SHEAVES. 



MEDITATIONS ON DEATH. 



HOSE friendly hand will close our eyes in 
i death, 

When, through its fitful pausing, the mortal breath 
Shall pass from gasp and struggle of the clay 
And earth, through sunset of the life's long day ? 

\Vhose friendly heart will grieve when chilling brow- 
Is misting with the dews from night of woe, 
While the soul is gliding through the mortal gloom 
And purple shadows of its earthly tomb ? 

Whose friendly love will fold our hands in peace 
When all life ends and mortal sorrows cease, 
When soul has snapped the vital cord in twain. 
Of pinion, binding wings that flight sustain ? 

Will tears, through mourning, fall from sorrow's eyes 
On clods below, where mortal body lies^ 
When dust to dust the ashes slowly fall 
That cover mortal earth with mortal pall? 



MEDI TA 7 ION S ON DEAl 11. 1 49 

Or will it be in some strange foreign land, 
Unknown, alone, where some kind stranger hand 
Will lay us in repose, when face to face 
We meet the mystery of the Heavenly grace 

Remote, afar from our beloved home, 
When to our failing vision wings shall come 
That flutter o'er the soul and fan new birth, 
From glow of life within its feeble earth? 

Ahis ! the mortal knoweth not the hour 
When quickened soul, divesting mortal power, 
Shall flit beyond, in twinkling of an eye, 
To realms whose bounds its God doth sanctify ! 

And yet, in madness of life's fever flush 
And riot of our hearts, who seeks, by hush 
And calmness of the soul, to quell the din 
Of striving for a forfeit, Death will win ? 

When in the tomb we lay some loved one down, 
We pause, through wounds and thorns of sorrow's 

crown, 
In tenderness, the new-made woe to shrine 
In funeral urn, for over-growing vine. 



I 50 SHEA VES. 

Then, from our grief, to busy life again 

We open wide the door, that weary Pain 

May tread the outward path, while the sun shines in 

That bids the strife of Memory to begin ; 

Forgetful of the path we too must tread, 
Down through the valley, to acres of the dead, 
Where, 'neath the sod below, our loved ones sleep 
In dreams that everlasting silence keep. 

Where moaning winds will whistle through the grass. 
As, on storm missions, o'er our heads they pass 
In tempests, beating through the driven clouds, 
While v/e are lying close within our shrouds. 

The summer breeze will rustle o'er the sod 
In whispers from the flowers, that bend and nod 
To murmurings of the shimmering stream 
Of life eternal. Nature's gentle theme. 

While those we loved so well will pass near by, 
And in a low and plaintive voice and cry 
Of sad remembrance, will speak as if we hear, 
While on our grave they drop a friendly tear. 



M EDIT A TIONS ON DBA TIT. I 5 I 

All through the home, so near and dear to heart, 
The sun will shine, and rift the clouds apart 
That closed around one vacant room in night, 
When Death was holding watch for morning's light. 

And then — oh, mortal destiny ! through years, 

How far aback from memory and tears 

We drift, in furrows of a sea and wave 

That has no earthly shore, save one lone grave ! 

Where yews, in hospitality of shade. 
Will lend a sorrow to our journey made, 
In pilgrimage, toward the silent tomb. 
In watchfulness, above its lonely gloom ! 

Ambition of the heart — of Life the guest — 
How futile your pretentious, vain unrest, 
When in the tomb, arrayed in winding-sheet, 
Embracing in the dust, your kin you meet ! 

Vainglory of the earth, whose passing bell 
The nothingness of empty pomp will tell, 
Through grandeur mouldering in sterility 
And barrenness of blind idolatry. 



SHEA VES. 



Oh, sad review when Memory calls the roll 
Within the sepulchre of death, if the Soul 
Shall answer not, through calm and husli of prayer^ 
In whispers to the heart, that God is there ! 



UNITY. 153 



UNITY 



IFE has a noon when the soul with love is 
crowned, 
In answer given to its human cry, 
That the heart, in a prayer, will sanctify 
In its echoing — where its name is found 
In the voice of Love and its tuneful sound, — 
When clouds, that gather in its morning sky, 
Are waiting the- sun mark to glorify 
Its halo, where the dim gray shadows frowned. 

The sacrament that binds this holy seal. 
In sweet confession to its kin is told 

By the heart, in faith and true devotion. 
In communion where love is manifold, 
^^Vhen tenderness and truth and hope reveal 
The parentage of Nature's pure emotion ! 



I 54 SHEA VES, 



PEACE. 



ULLED by faith, in its calm where blessings 
glow, 

Through tempestuous tossings side by side, 
In supreme content drifting with the tide, 
Two lives have stemmed the current and the flow 
Of love : Where moorings of its peace bestow 
A dreamy languishment, two hearts abide 
In oneness that mingling souls will guide 
To hushfulness that only true hearts know ; 
Where Hope, in diadems, its jewels clusters 
Within the quiet shadows of its night, 
That its glowing day in love pursues. 
Enhancing the brightness of its lustres, 
In the radiance of the pure delight 

And the joy that peacefulness subdues. 



COM PEN SA TIONS. I 5 5 



COMPENSATIONS. 



ISTAKING life— that Time will dignify— 
We call our sorrows in reviews, through 
fears 
From Memory's irritating dust of years ; 
Resisting not, our woes we glorify ; 
Choosing not with grief our lives to beautify, 
We fill the thornless lily with our tears. 
And search for wounds that thorny rose-bloom 
rears. 
Accepting not one hope to deify ! 

Triumphal arches rise all o'er the earth. 
Bend obedient, seek the open gate ; 

Poor the name that hath no inheritance, 
Though thy worldly one was a crownless birth. 
In everlasting glories for thee wait 

Compensations, in God's holy vigilance. 



I >6 SHEA VES. 



CONFIDENX^E. 



p HE vine, that in its summer climbing clings, 
!^ Passive, obedient, and all alone, 



To one rude stone, with mosses overgrown, 
Compliant in the stormy threatenings, 
East, west, north, soutli, all through its journeying? 
Wreathing its progress o'er a mantled throne, 
While fear of fatal tempests is unknown, 
Through the peacefulness of the trust it brings ; 
In its destiny firm, unaltering. 

Fulfils its life with fearless liberty, 

E'er casting forth the verdure of new birth ; 
Intrepid, silent, and unfaltering, 

Loyal to its mission — that was to be — 

Through leaves forever dropping dews for 
earth. 



DREAMS. Id/ 



DREAMS. 



N fraternity of shadows we guide 

Our thoughts to a dim and strange review- 
ing ; 
Reposing Reason aids the weird pursuing 
Through mystery of sleep, where memories stride 
With august gait, and sorrows halting glide 

With dream-chained captives, a hope renewing 
In images of the heart's subduing ; 
Then disappear in the atmospheric tide, 
Where the dead confront the living, breathing, 
And long-forgotten voices in one chorus 
Absolving dim remembrance of the years. 
In peans triumphal cars are wreathing 
With victories of life, that pass before us 

While wakeful Day is wandering through our 
tears ! 



s8 SHEAVES. 



HOPE. 

ALLOWED by a love in destitution, 

When Sorrow, mourning in a rayless grief 
A wreck that stranded on a rocky reef, 
Writhes, despairing, in a sad delusion. 
Seeking in dejection restitution, 

And in the stifled sighing for relief. 
Forgetting the beginning of belief 
In wanderings of the dim confusion ; 
One sign, in a pale fond lustre gleaming, 

Extends a promise through the heart's eclipse. 
When, blinded, groping in the darkness strange, 
Defenceless, and mute in the grievous change, 
Exalted, uplifted to her quivering lips, 
A cross, illumined with a prayer, is beaming. 



S UBMISSION. I 5 9 



SUBMISSION. 

ITH pain, disquietude, and fear oppressed. 
Enduring grief and trials of despair, 



When life is wandering in an endless care, 
Seeking the courage of a perfect rest 
In loneliness, with hope and love unblest ; 

Conflicts, struggles, tears, and sorrows everywhere, 

Imploring Fate its burthens to forbear. 
Fainting, exhausted, and with woe depressed, 
Renew the heart with chast'nings of a grace ; 

And thou, with lasting calm, look higher ; 
Forget the grovellings of thy weary pains ; 
From Nature take the upward-looking face ; 

Life seems to Heavenly love still nigher 
When pitiful afflictions its soul enchains. 



l6o SHEA VES. 



SUBSTITUTION. 



HANK Heaven that we can say ' we will for- 
get " ; 

With eager hand, we tear from book of fate 
The sybil leaf (where Hope may write " too late " 
Ere Patience claims the page for amulet), 
Where Love, with tears, will crystallize regret 
In mystic words that Peace may re-create, 
And crown anew the fallen heart's estate 
By one Appointment — God compassionate. 
As sunshine seeking shadows, day by day 

Will compensations come : For theme of songs 
Search not for harmonies on broken lyre, 
Where sweeps the wind, in mournful minor lay, 
Till melancholy undertone prolongs 

A wail and requiem o'er Love's funeral pyre ! 



"■'ijb 



